


Falling In Love With Love

by JRW9699



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Drama, F/F, F/M, Mild Sexual Content, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-02-09 01:02:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12876837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JRW9699/pseuds/JRW9699
Summary: When, in the aftermath of Prometheus’s defeat, Team Arrow receive a visitor from Earth-38 their entire world is turned upside down. For Oliver and Kara, though, things will never be the same.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Until further notice this is exclusively a one-shot, as I already have one multi-chapter story on the go as well as all the stuff I need to do for university, but it will hopefully evolve into something fully formed soon. For plot convenience reasons that I will explain as the plot progresses, this story takes place after 5x21 for Team Arrow (and Earth One as a whole) but after 2x12 for Supergirl (Earth-38).

Oliver Queen had only ever been sure of a few things in his life, right now though, he was pretty sure time was slowing down. What should have been a short walk down the hotel corridor was making his goal seem further away than it really was, and the aspiration he’d felt after stepping off the elevator was quickly slipping away.

Could it be? Was he… _nervous_? No, it was just a little mild anxiety, it had been a while since his last date after all, and that had ended pretty badly. He knew he couldn’t kid himself forever; was Oliver Queen _afraid_?

Impossible…he couldn’t be.

That thought made him even more uncomfortable. Sure, he was glad, of course he was, getting that phone call from Kara made his evening but he was still, somehow, nervous. Oliver Queen did _not_ do nervous. He regularly dealt with pressures that most people would collapse under, stood his ground in fights that would kill almost anyone else…hell he led an entire life as the mayor of a whole city while fighting crime at night!

Rolling his shoulders to try and release some of his tension, Oliver came to a stop before the room he was looking for. The door looked like all the others; rich white paint, authentic oak, shiny brass handle, but uniquely, just below the peephole, was the number ‘ _245_ ’. Forcing his mind to stop panicking quite so much Oliver zoned in a little more.

Immediately he heard the muffled music blasting from within the room, though completely unaware of how he hadn’t noticed it earlier, it made Oliver grin a little. It seemed a little redundant, to him at least, that someone with super-hearing would need to have music playing even remotely close to the volume that was emanating from Kara’s hotel room.

With a smile now on his face, Oliver raised a clenched fist and rapped on the door with his knuckles, certain that Kara would hear him. In fact, Oliver was a little surprised that she hadn’t heard his heartbeat or his breathing (or whatever else that super-hearing of hers could pick up) and opened the door to him already.

Hardly a second passed before the door was pulled open, undoubtedly aided by super-speed, revealing the room behind it and, more importantly, Kara. Oliver quickly ran his eyes over her appearance, a little surprised at how different it was to her usual attire. Gone were the bright blouses and skirts, in their place was a pair of tightly-fitted black jeans and an equally form-hugging black tank top. As taken aback by this change as Oliver was, he didn’t register the dishevelled state of her hair.

“Glad you changed your mind about that drink.” Oliver smiled, dragging his eyes up to meet her own.

“Come on in.” Kara’s breathy reply washed across Oliver's ears.

He was hardly through the door when Kara began closing it behind him, though again Oliver neglected to notice it, still distracted by both Kara’s clothing and the music, which he had now identified as some kind of Electropop. On hearing the click of the door closing Oliver snapped back into reality.

“You should get changed, there’s this new club opened up near Verdant that looks…”

Oliver didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence. Before he fully registered what was happening Kara had taken him, albeit lightly, by the lapels of his leather jacket and backed him up against the wall beside the door. When his back collided with the wall, Oliver was beyond confused. The tip of Kara’s nose lightly brushed against his and for a moment Oliver could meet her eyes, some dim thought in the back of his mind registering that she must have been levitating, before Kara’s lips were pressed against his own.

The sensation of the contact completely shut down the vast majority of Oliver's brain, he was actually seeing fireworks, or at least he did for the brief moment that he allowed his eyes to drift shut. The kiss wasn’t fierce or rough, it was light, almost passionate, and it was like nothing he had ever felt. Opening his eyes again, Oliver briefly managed to break his lips from Kara’s, hardly a second later her hand tangled in the hair at the back of his head and her lips were once again on his own.

This time, Oliver was far more aware of himself, and managed to separate them hardly a second later. While Kara’s lips never strayed more than a few centimetres from his own, it was clear she wanted to continue. While Oliver wanted nothing more than to do the same, he knew something wasn’t right, Kara was _never_ this brazen. Looking into her eyes again, Oliver noticed something, his brain finally connecting the dots.

“Are…are you _high_?” He managed to stumble out.

Kara’s lips brushed against his own before she replied. “Uh-huh.”

Oliver was so distracted that he didn’t really register Kara pushing his leather jacket off his shoulders until the he heard the faint thud of it hitting the floor. Turning his head slightly to think, Oliver racked his brain for how an alien from another planet (not to mention another dimension) would managed to get stoned, all while doing his best to ignore the feeling of her lips against his cheek. Then it hit him.

“I thought you sent the drugs back to your Earth?” Oliver managed to ask.

Kara lightly tugged him away from the wall, pressing her lips to his again. “Not all of it.”

The moment Kara’s lips came to his again, this time a little more forcefully and with a purpose, Oliver lost enough of his control to kiss her back, relishing in the way she tasted. The sensation completely fried his brain, and Oliver began working on instinct. Oliver would, much later, try to convince himself that was why it took him so long to realise that Kara had almost finished unbuttoning his shirt.

Snapping back a little focus, Oliver gently took her hands in his own, holding them up to his chest while pulling back from her a little.

“Uhh, slow down…” His words came a little more breathless than he had hoped. Letting go of Kara’s hands, Oliver took her shoulders so he could look into her eyes easier. “Your pupils are dilated! You’re not…”

Kara had quite clearly grown impatient of Oliver’s excuses and finally broke out her super-strength, tearing the shirt from his torso. Oliver was more than a little taken aback by the action, yet at the same time found himself all the more attracted to her for it.

“Come on, Oliver; don’t turn into a good guy on me now.”

Her words made something in him snap, Oliver had been fighting the attraction for long enough, didn’t he deserve to just give in every now and then? With an unexpected passion, Oliver captured her lips with his own, and Kara, who was definitely levitating now, began to lightly tug them both toward what Oliver hoped was the bedroom.

 

_XXX_

**_3 Months Earlier – Earth-1_ **

“What about you Oliver?” Diggle asked with a smile. “I know you’ve got City Hall and all, but…”

“Yeah it keeps me busy but I…I need to buy some socks.” The amused and bewildered looks of his friends almost brought a smile to his lips. “Everybody has their thing, I need socks, bad.”

The round of laughter that came from the group then finally brought out his smile, Oliver knew he had every right to celebrate and he was going to enjoy it. Adrian Chase was safely behind bars, in A.R.G.U.S. custody where he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone, and the city was safe, it felt good. Sure, Black Siren was still out there, Evelyn was bound to turn up eventually and Talia would undoubtedly be out for revenge now Chase had failed but, for now, they had peace, and peace felt good.

Oliver's smile widened as he looked around the room, all these people who had been brought together by his crusade. Felicity and John - his two oldest allies and most trusted advisors, Thea – his baby sister and, as it turned out, political genius, Quentin – his once enemy and now right-hand-man as mayor, and finally Curtis, Dinah and Rene – the new recruits and yet just as much a part of the family. To think that this had all begun with his father’s notebook and a bow provided by Talia al Ghul, in that dark and damp foundry, when Oliver himself had just been a man full of hate and rage, was almost inconceivable.

Oliver Queen was happy. Which meant, by a fundamental law of physics as agreed throughout the multiverse, karma was about to mess something up…big time.

 

_XXX_

**_Meanwhile – Earth-38_ **

“No, Alex, this is the right thing to do.” Kara sighed.

For the last 10 minutes, she’d been locked in a seemingly unwinnable argument with Alex and J’onn about her decision, and she was getting tired. If, for a moment, she was being totally honest, Kara would admit that her mind had been made up from the moment she stepped into the D.E.O. so regardless of what the other two said her plan was not going to change.

“Kara, we can handle this, we don’t have to go jumping across the multiverse begging for help.” Alex shot back.

“Alex is right, Kara.” J’onn’s voice cut through the brief silence that had befallen them. “I’ve got our best people on this.”

“Then your best people aren’t good enough J’onn.” Kara bit out, albeit a little angrier than she had intended. “And I wouldn’t be begging for help, these people are my friends.”

The looks that Alex and J’onn were giving her confirmed that she was most definitely on the backfoot for this argument. Kara was a little confused as to why they were both so strongly against her plan, it was a pretty good one after all. When Cisco had given her the breech device after the Dominator invasion it had been to call for help if she ever needed it, and this definitely qualified.

Then again; friends might have been a strong word to describe Oliver and his team. She was friends with Barry, definitely, and she and Oliver had shared…a moment…before they’d gone their separate ways, but describing Oliver as a friend might have been a little bit of a leap. Not that Kara was concerned about that, she knew that, if she asked, Oliver would be there to help her. After all, that was what heroes did, they helped people.

“My mind is already made up.” Kara said a little more assertively. “We need help and this is the best way to get it.”

“Kara…” Alex tried but she was swiftly cut off.

“Alex, this is Jerimiah we’re talking about, if there’s any chance we can get to him sooner we need to take it. I don’t get why you’re so against this.”

When her sister responded only with an exasperated sigh, Kara gave in. Turning on her heel, Kara took to the skies and returned home, heading straight to the drawer where she’d hidden the breech device.

 

_XXX_

**_Earth-1_ **

“Whatever,” Thea laughed. “Nothing will ever beat you and Tommy filling Malcom’s pool with beer.”

The incredulous looks Oliver received from the recruits at that only made him laugh louder, he sometimes forgot they had no idea of what he’d been like before the island. In the four hours they’d all been sat in Felicity's apartment, the whole group had managed to consume a little too much alcohol, not that they were drunk, but it definitely wasn’t safe to drive. Quentin had decided to take his leave when they’d broke the third bottle of champagne open, knowing that he wouldn’t want to be around to see the group get wasted.

Oliver himself was still on the safe side of sober, he’d picked up the crafty trick of drinking ginger ale and letting everyone assume it was champagne, though he couldn’t quite remember where he’d got the idea from in the first place. Out of the group only Diggle was wise to the trick, he’d known about it since Oliver had begun using it nearly 5 years ago. As far as he’d been able to tell though, Diggle hadn’t noticed he was doing it tonight.

“Wait, you filled a whole pool with beer?” Rene asked, astounded. “Damn, Hoss, that’s cool.”

“It wasn’t exactly one of my finer moments,” Oliver rolled his eyes. “But it was pretty awesome.” He finished with a smirk.

The group exploded in another round of laughter at that, and Oliver had to shake his head a little at how comfortable he was around these people, it wasn’t something he ever could have imagined for himself 5 years ago.

Before anyone could say another word, a faint pulsating sound rang out through the room as the air in the living space was torn apart. The whole group was on their feet before the breech had even finished forming, each of them prepared to handle whatever it was that came through. After a few moments, there was still no sign of movement from the breech, and it was putting the team even more on edge.

“What’s the plan, boss?” It was Dinah who spoke up. “What’d we do if this thing isn’t closing.”

After examining the breech a little more intently than necessary for a moment, though why he did so he had no idea, Oliver turned and addressed the team.

“Felicity, get onto S.T.A.R. Labs, this stuff is their speciality. Curtis, get some tech set up in here, let’s see if we can figure out where this thing leads. Everyone else, be on alert, we’ve got no idea what might come…”

Oliver's next question was answered before he could even finish asking it. The breech shifted a little and a blur of red and blue leapt from it, the breech snapping shut behind the blur. It took a moment for them all to realise that had just happened, but before them stood Kara Danvers, Supergirl.

“Hey guys,” The blonde chirped. “How are you?”

With the whole group in a sort of stunned silence it was up to Oliver to speak.

“Kara? I…what’re you doing here?”

For a moment, it looked as though Kara was about to reply, but her expression quickly changed as she took in the room and the decorations.

“Wait, it’s your birthday?” She asked, meeting Oliver's eyes.

“Well…yeah.” Oliver answered, a little thrown by why she’d decided to bring that up. “Now, I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess you didn’t hop the multiverse to drink champagne and celebrate with us. So, what can we do to help?”


	2. Chapter 2

 

She’d asked to speak to him alone, that was the first thing that set Oliver a little on edge. The simple fact that Supergirl needed _his_ help aided to that concern. After Kara had greeted everyone in her natural, yet seemingly all-too bubbly, way, she and Oliver had left the others to talk in private; which was why they were both now stood on the roof, away from prying ears.

Night-time in Star City was something Oliver been slowly losing his appreciation for ever since his return home. While it may have looked tranquil from above, he knew full well the sickness that was embedded so deeply within the city, that took away a lot of the glamour. There were hardly any stars in the sky either, he supposed that it was natural with a city as large as his own, and that was one of the very few things Oliver missed about the island. The night sky had been something peaceful when he’d been on Lian Yu, simple, there was almost a lucid purity about it that Oliver had never seen before or since.

Snapping out of his reverie, Oliver looked across at Kara, who was currently looking anywhere but at him and tapping her foot nervously. It was pretty clear to him that Kara was still…maybe intimidated wasn’t the right word for it. Oliver knew full well that Kara could snap him like a tooth pick if she wanted too and there was very little he could do to stop her, but he hadn’t exactly been welcoming last time they’d met.

“So,” Oliver began after another few seconds of silence. “I’m guessing you’re here because you need my help.”

Kara only nodded in response.

“And it’s with something that Barry and his team over in Central City can’t help you with.” He continued slowly.

She nodded again.

Oliver wasn’t sure what to say next, he could hardly offer his help if Kara didn’t tell him what it was she needed him for.

After a few more moments of the uncomfortable silence settling back in Kara spoke.  “I need your help…it’s about my father.”

That struck a chord with him, if anyone had experience dealing with issues around their father it was Oliver. Internally, Oliver had already agreed to help her, a part of him immediately trying to protect Kara from going through what he did. When that thought crossed his mind, Oliver had to pause for a moment. He would do this for anyone, wasn’t that the point? Protecting people from having to suffer that way he did? So, why had his subconscious so explicitly said he wanted to protect Kara?

“What about him?” Oliver asked, regaining his composure.

“Well he’s my adoptive father actually but…nearly 15 years ago he went on a mission for the D.E.O. and never came home, we thought…everyone thought…he was dead.” Oliver tried to remain neutral as Kara spoke but that was a pain he knew all too well. “A few weeks back I was taken by this group called Cadmus and it was my father who rescued me.”

That was a lot to process. Not only had Kara been forced to believe her father was dead, but then to find out he’d actually been alive the whole time and working for some terrorist group that had kidnapped her. For the first time in 10 years Oliver was convinced that there was someone who actually had a life that was more complicated than his own. The name Cadmus sounded familiar too, he was sure of it, it’d had definitely come up at some point. He’d have to get Felicity to run a check for anything bearing that name soon, just to be safe.

“So…your father’s alive and working for this Cadmus?” Oliver asked, still processing internally.

“He’s not working for them.” Kara snapped a moment later, squaring up to Oliver a little. “He’s as much their victim as any of the aliens they’ve hurt.”

Right. Aliens. The things that were actually totally common on Kara’s version of Earth. That was still something Oliver struggled to get his head around, he could handle Mirakuru soldiers, magic, men who were fast enough to run on water, but he drew the line at aliens. He finally understood what Diggle felt whenever Barry used his speed around him.

“They’ve kept him there for 15 years, Oliver, and if I know Cadmus they’ve done all kinds of horrible things it him,” Kara had moved a lot closer to Oliver as she had spoken, close enough for him to see the heartbreak in her eyes despite the lack of light on the roof. “I need you to help me save him.”

“Why me?” Oliver asked. “You’re the invulnerable one.”

“They’re ready for me. Cadmus had been studying aliens for years, they know everything I can do, and they’ve got the one thing that can actually stop me. It’s called kryptonite, and they’ve been stockpiling the stuff. It leeches my powers, it could probably kill me if I was exposed to it for too long.”

Oliver was a little impressed by how easily Kara shared her weaknesses, years of having to survive by any means necessary had taught Oliver to play that particular card _very_ close to his chest.

 _Never let them see you bleed_.

Kara’s revelation might have been a little more impressive if he hadn’t already known about kryptonite though. So maybe after everything that had happened with the Dominators Oliver had coerced Cisco into an expedition to Earth-38 to learn more about Kryptonians, and maybe that had led to Cisco building Oliver a handful of kryptonite arrows and red solar grenades…just in case.

“What about Barry and his team?” Oliver suggested. “They’ve all got powers and they’re immune to kryptonite.”

“We have aliens with all of their powers on my Earth and Cadmus is ready for them all. They never stay in one place long but their facilities are like fortresses, any super-powers are pretty much useless inside them.”

Oliver had a pretty good idea where this was going, but he wasn’t going to make assumptions, if Kara wanted his help all she had to do was ask him.

“And this involves me how?” Oliver spoke, turning his head a little to meet Kara’s eyes and, clearly, she saw both the confusion and interest in his own.

“You’re human.” Kara stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, and Oliver tried his best not to be a little offended by her tone of voice when she spoke. “Cadmus has spent so much time defending themselves against aliens that they couldn’t conceive a human being brave enough to take them on.”

Oliver had to admit that Kara had a point, he’d even accept that implied compliment, that he was brave enough to take on a shady group of anti-alien terrorists armed just with his bow and his wits.

“I know it’s a lot to ask, I know I’m asking you to leave your home for a while and travel to an entirely different world just to help me…and I know we don’t even know each other that well but…”

“Okay.” Oliver cut over her ramble, Kara really did remind him of Felicity sometimes.

“I…” Kara looked up at him, her eyes wide and a beaming smile on her face. “Really?”

“Yes.” Oliver chuckled a little at her surprise. “Of course, I’ll help you.”

“Thank you.” Kara practically shouted.

Before Oliver could register it, Kara had super-speeded herself through what little distance remained between them and wrapped him in a bone crushing hug. Oliver was not an enthusiastic fan of hugs, and everyone who knew him, knew that fact. Kara quite clearly both oblivious to that fact, and a lover of hugs. If Oliver didn’t know any better, he’d probably be convinced Kara had just broken at least one of his ribs.

 

_XXX_

“You’re kidding.” Felicity deadpanned, giving him an incredulous look.

Oliver had gathered the team, plus Quentin and Thea at The Bunker to explain the situation to them. After his conversation with Kara the night before, Oliver had begun making plans to get himself at least two weeks on Earth-38 to help Kara and her friends. Thea was the only person who was already aware of his plans, and had managed to come up with the idea of convincing the city council that he was going on a spiritual cleanse in the Himalayas, which had somehow worked.

Other than that, Oliver only had to worry about the team, and, if he was being honest, he wasn’t worried at all. Diggle was perfectly capable of leading the recruits, Oliver had no doubts there, and the team worked together more than well enough to hold their own without him for a while. Plus, it wasn’t even as though he were that far away. Cisco had provided him with a replica of the breech device he’d made for Kara, so the team would be able to come and get him anytime they needed to.

“Kara needs my help, we still owe her for helping us when the Dominators attacked.” Oliver answered, even though that was far from his main reason for helping.

“So, buy her a bottle of champagne,” Felicity quickly shot back. “You have responsibilities here.”

Oliver rolled his left fist a little, clenching it in search of a bow that was not there. That had become a habit in the last few years, Oliver felt far more in control when he had his bow in his hand, so it had become a reflex to search for it whenever he was stressed.

“You and Digg are perfectly capable of keeping the team together,” A quick glance at his former bodyguard was greeted with a curt nod, confirming that fact. “And Thea had manged to buy me at least two weeks away from city hall, she and Quentin can keep on top of things there.”

“And what if we need the Green Arrow? You can’t just walk out on us…” The blonde continued to argue.

“I’ve left before, and things were fine.” Oliver answered, ignoring the pointed look Felicity gave him while pulling the breech device from his pocket, then holding it up to display to the team. “But, if something does happen, then, you’ve got this. All you’ve got to do is push the button and it’ll open a breech to Earth-38 so you can come get me.”

“Okay. I guess you’ve already made up your mind, I’m done trying to change it.” Felicity resigned with an unreadable expression. “Good luck.”

With that the blonde got to her feet and walked out, not glancing back to look at Oliver or the team. The rest of the group wished Oliver luck one-by-one and slowly filtered out until it was just Oliver and Diggle left in The Bunker. With a sigh, Oliver placed the breech device on the desk and sunk into one of the chairs at the computer bank.

“So,” Diggle began, taking a seat on the desk next to Oliver. “You’re going dimension hopping to save another world. When did this become our lives?”

“Aliens, John.” Oliver let out a sarcastic laugh. “They’ve got an entire world where aliens are just…everywhere. I thought meta-humans and magic were about as crazy as things could get.”

“Oliver, I accepted a long time ago that this life we lead is just going to keep getting crazier, every time something weird happens I just end up preparing myself with the knowledge that there’s always going to be something to follow it, and that ‘thing’ is almost always even weirder.” John smiled at him.

Oliver didn’t reply straight away, his attention getting pulled towards the exit to The Bunker, his thoughts turning to Felicity. He couldn’t place why she had been so upset at his plans, he was going to help a friend for a week or two, he wasn’t planning on moving to Earth-38 permanently.

“She’ll come around.” John spoke up, knowing all too well what Oliver was thinking about. “She just needs time to process this, not that bringing up Ivy Town helped much.”

“I was making a point John, but it’s hardly the same thing,” Oliver began quickly. “When Felicity and I moved to Ivy Town, it was to get away from this life, to settle down. I’m doing this now because Kara needs me.”

“But you’ve gotta see what this looks like for her, man. You compared this ‘work trip’ to that life you had with her, it’s gotta be hard to hear.” John smiled softly.

With a smile now touching at his lips, Oliver turned to face John. “And why are you so sagely and calm about me leaving?”

“Because you deserve this, some time away from this city…from the darkness. After everything that happened with Chase it’ll be good for you to get away.” Diggle answered, before quickly adding. “And I think Kara will be good for you too.”

“What? John, I…”

“Oliver, that girl is literally and figuratively a bundle of sunlight. Spending some time around someone who is that pure of heart could do you a few favours, especially with what’s happened over the last few weeks.”

Oliver wanted to argue, but he knew that was futile. Not only because Diggle had clearly already made his mind up about that fact but also because Oliver agreed with him.

Kara was…good.

 

_XXX_

Kara could hardly contain herself as she flew back to Star City to meet Oliver. After their conversation on the roof the previous night, Oliver had offered for her to stay at his place for the night while he made his travel arrangements. She’d politely declined and set out for Central City, planning on spending the night at S.T.A.R. Labs with Barry and Team Flash.

She’d been able to flex her muscles a little and help Barry stop a bank robbery and a few other minor crimes. Almost disappointingly there were no meta-humans involved and the weaponry on Earth-1 was nowhere near as advanced as the stuff criminals on her world had access to, so it had almost been too easy for the two of them to stop what little crime had been happening.

So, 22 hours and 17 minutes after her conversation with Oliver (not that she had been counting) Barry had passed on the message that he was ready to head to Earth-38. In her excitement, Kara had almost manged to forget to say good-bye to everyone.

Coming to a stop at the address she had been given by Barry, Kara took a brief look at the fairly non-descript building that she assumed contained Oliver's base of operations. Not that she needed to assume, she could see it with her x-ray vision, a fairly large complex under the building. It was impressive, the tech inside would almost give the D.E.O. a run for their money. Then she spotted Oliver, stood in the middle of what looked to be the control room, hands clasped meaningfully behind his back as he studied something on one of the computer screens.

Courtesy of her powers, Kara quickly found the elevator and began the decent to Oliver's base. As the doors opened and she took in The Bunker for the first time, she had to admit; it may not have been as advanced as the D.E.O. but it had a whole lot more style. As she entered the room, Oliver (who was clad in a mask/hoodless Green Arrow suit) hadn’t turned to acknowledge her arrival, still studying the data on the computer, which she now realised was a file about what little they knew of Earth-38.

“Evening, Kara.” Oliver spoke without turning around, she’d clearly been lingering in the doorway too long.

With the smile returning to her face, Kara bounded up the stairs to Oliver, who had finally turned around.

“You ready to go?”

“Almost.” Oliver began, turning back to the computer and closing the file.

That was when Kara noticed the duffle bag that sat on the chair beside Oliver, a quick x-ray revealed a handful of clothes, a few notepads and pencils, and a veritable arsenal of arrows and…

“Is that an actual bar of gold?!” Kara gasped, after realising what she had seen.

The scolding look Oliver gave her told him that he really didn’t appreciate her using her powers to check out his belongings, and that brought Kara closer to fear than she’d felt for a long time. That gave her a new appreciation of why criminals were so afraid of the Green Arrow. After a moment or two, Oliver’s expression softened a little, he must have been able to read people a lot better than Kara had first thought.

“I figured that I wouldn’t be able to use my credit cards on your Earth, so I had John get me something that I’d be able to exchange on your Earth.” Oliver stated, and Kara couldn’t refute the logic.

“And how much is that worth?” She questioned, glancing suspiciously at the bag.

“I think somewhere around $25,000.” Oliver shrugged, as he picked up the bag and hung it over his shoulder.

Kara had no words for how calm Oliver was about carrying around that much money, but, she supposed, he hardly had to worry about getting robbed. Taking the breech device from her pocket, Kara watched as Oliver grabbed his bow with his free hand, and at how much more relaxed he seemed for it.

“Let’s do it.” Kara smiled, pressing the button.

The two watched as the breech opened before them, Kara motioning for Oliver to go first.

 

_XXX_

**_Earth-38_ **

Jumping through breeches was always an uncomfortable experience as far as Oliver was concerned, it felt strange, like every molecule in his body froze for just a moment before he came out on the other side. This time, the other side was far less welcoming than Oliver had been expecting.

He’d stepped out of the breech into a facility that reminded him a lot of A.R.G.U.S. but the most discernible difference was the 6…make that 7 armed guards aiming guns at him. In one swift movement, Oliver had dropped the duffle bag from his shoulder and nocked an arrow, waiting for someone to make the first move.

The breech was still open, so he could dive back through it, but they’d likely open fire as soon as he moved, plus they’d be able to follow him even if they didn’t. He could win this fight if he had to, 7 government agents wouldn’t be too difficult to take down, though he would probably take a few hits too.

While Oliver was weighing up his options one of the agents, a woman with short brunette hair stepped forward, gun still squarely aimed at his chest.

“Who are you? How did you get in here?”

Oliver chose not to answer, instead, turning his head just enough that he could glance over his shoulder at the breech, waiting for any sign of Kara’s arrival. He didn’t want to start a fight, Oliver knew better than to shoot first and ask questions later. More time passed, it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds but in that standoff, it felt like an eternity. Then, the breech shifted and through it, leapt Kara, the gateway snapping shut behind her.

“Kara,” Oliver bit out through gritted teeth. “Where the hell are…”

“Alex!” Kara shouted, speeding past him and into the arms of the brunette who’d tried to question him.

“Supergirl,” The brunette, Alex, spoke. “I was worried, you didn’t say how long you’d be gone for and just disappeared.”

“You sound just like mom.” Kara answered, separating herself from Alex.

 _Mom?_ Oliver thought to himself. Then his mind made the connection, if it was Kara’s adoptive father he was here to help rescue, then Alex must have been the adoptive sister Kara had mentioned.

“Kara.” Oliver spoke again, his voice low and laden with threat. “Would you mind telling these people to put their guns down.” Oliver articulated those last two words heavily, and he saw the reaction that got from a number of the agents.

“It’s okay everyone, he’s a friend of mine, you can put the guns down.” Kara announced, keeping up her excitable tone.

The agents swiftly holstered their weapons and went about doing whatever it was they’d been doing before Oliver's arrival. Watching the room carefully, Oliver made sure that no one else was aiming a weapon at him before he relaxed his bow, placing the arrow back in his quiver. He, Kara and Alex had been left alone in the centre of the room, but various agents were still throwing them odd glances. Clearly, they didn’t trust Oliver.

Going by the look Kara’s adoptive sister was giving him, that trust was not going to be easy to win.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: So I wasn't planning on writing this for a while but with the support that this story got I just had to keep working. Thanks again to my Beta Nightwing Panther 2017 without whom this would not be possible.
> 
> If you enjoyed please drop a comment, it always means the world to know that people are enjoying this, and I'll see you in the next chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To explain why Kara and the rest of the ensemble from Earth-38 act the way they do in this, I just want to point out where I took this story on the AU track. So, in this universe, at the end of 2x12 (Luthors) Kara doesn’t call Mon-El and instead goes to get Oliver from Earth-1. My reasons for this will make more sense as we go on…I hope.

“So, you’re the help that we don’t need?”

Oliver's attention snapped back to Alex when she spoke. He’d been taking in the room around from the moment the agents had stepped away, despite the lack of armed weapons aimed at his chest Oliver still wasn’t relaxed. So, he’d mapped the room; chosen the most defendable area, counted all the agents, counted all the exits, and calculated the amount of time it would take to make a quick escape if he needed to.

“I’m here because Kara asked me.” Oliver responded, knowing full-well that he hadn’t actually answered her question.

He had to fight the grin that tugged on the corners of his mouth at Alex’s response, she definitely didn’t like him. So, maybe Oliver was pushing her a little, but he was always curious to know the limits of the people in his environment. If he was to stay here for two weeks, Oliver would undoubtedly need to get Kara’s sister on his side, particularly being as it was _her_ father he was there to save.

Giving him a pointed look, Alex turned back to face her sister. “Kara, you can’t just bring strangers into the D.E.O. We could’ve hurt him.”

That time, Oliver failed to supress his grin. In the minute that he’d been in that standoff with the agents, he’d planned several ways to take them all out, each with varying levels of lethality. The idea that Kara’s sister could actually hurt him was downright laughable. Unfortunately, Alex Danvers was perhaps a little more talented than Oliver had given her credit for, she’d clearly noticed his grin in the corner of her eye.

“Something funny, Robin Hood?” Alex spoke, the irritation a little too obvious in her voice.

Oliver almost wanted to fight her, he knew it wouldn’t take much more to bait Alex into agreeing to spar, and if he pushed the right buttons Oliver was pretty sure he could get her to take a swing at him right where they stood. Expect, going by the look Kara was giving him over Alex’s shoulder, that wouldn’t end well for him, especially if he won. He’d have to swallow his pride…for now.

“Not at all, Alex.” Oliver spoke, carefully emphasising the use of her name.

By the way Alex squared up to him a little more at that, Oliver realised he might have misjudged just how much she disliked him.

“That’s Agent Danvers to you.” 

Looking to Kara over Alex’s shoulder, Oliver, who found himself fighting a smile, raised his eyebrows at her. The communication worked, the blonde simply shrugging at him in defeat, seemingly knowing that she couldn’t avoid the confrontation. Now unable to push his grin down, Oliver matched Alex’s position, the two of them practically butting heads.

“Agent Danvers!” A voice rang out through the room, and Alex immediately stepped away from Oliver.

Oliver turned his head just in time to see the voice’s owner reaching the trio, a scowl plastered across his features. It didn’t take too much of a leap for Oliver to guess that this was Alex’s boss.

“Oliver Queen, meet J’onn J’onzz.” Kara began, taking a few steps towards the two men. “Director of the D.E.O.”

“Mr. Queen.” J’onn spoke, extending a hand.

“J’onzz?” Oliver began, shaking J’onn’s hand. “That’s…”

“Martian.” Alex cut over him with a grin.

Martian.

The guy in charge of the covert government division dedicated to fighting alien threats was a Martian. That information took Oliver a moment to file away under ‘ _stress about later’_ , he really was going to have to get used to the fact that he was going to meet a lot of aliens during his stay.

“So, you’re the friend from Earth-1 that Kara thinks can help us?” J’onn continued, having either not noticed Oliver's hesitation or choosing to ignore it. Oliver hoped it was the former.

“Kara thinks that I can give your team an edge to take on Cadmus. If this group is so dedicated to wiping out aliens then they won’t be expecting a human to be the one to go to war against them.”

It was a solid answer, Oliver himself now believed it. He’d been sceptical at first, of course he had. Kara’s version of Earth had weapons and technologies that were beyond anything his world was capable of, going up against people with that kind of power was an intimidating thought. Then, Oliver had realised that Kara was right. All that power and technology was designed to take out aliens, what were the odds any of it would actually work on him?

And if they were stupid enough to pull good, old-fashioned guns on him? Then more fool them, that was Oliver's home ground.

When Oliver looked back to J’onn, it was clear that the man was satisfied by his answer, even if he wasn’t entirely convinced that it was a promising idea. Oliver couldn’t blame him; every time Barry turned up with some new meta-human, claiming that they would help defeat whatever that week’s major threat was, Oliver was sceptical. Until he proved himself, these people would be pretty damned difficult to work with.

“Okay,” Came J’onn’s carefully measured answer. “Agent Danvers?”

The two men turned their heads to look at the sisters. While Kara was still smiling, almost looking proud at the way Oliver handled himself with J’onn, Alex looked even more aggravated than she did earlier. Making a point of ignoring both Oliver and J’onn, Alex turned to her sister.

“Kara, we need to talk. Alone.” With that, the brunette marched off with Kara in tow, the blonde simply throwing Oliver an apologetic look over her shoulder.

When the sister had disappeared from sight, Oliver turned back to the Martian.

“J’onn, if it’s not too much to ask I’d like a secure place to store some of my equipment, and someone to explain to me how things work around here.”

For a moment, J’onn seemed to ponder Oliver's request, before a faint grin came over his lips. “I’ve got just the man for you, Mr. Queen. Agent Schott!”

 

_XXX_

So, introducing Oliver to her team hadn’t gone exactly as Kara had planned. To be perfectly honest, Kara hadn’t even considered the possibility that the D.E.O. would’ve been on such high alert, the standoff between Oliver and her sister hadn’t exactly been the welcoming greeting party Kara had hoped for.

At least J’onn seemed convinced by Oliver motives, at least that would make things easier for the two of them whenever they needed help from the D.E.O. It was just a little disappointing that Alex seemed to be so stubbornly against accepting Oliver's help.

Speaking of which, Kara’s attention was pulled back to her sister at the sound of the door to the training room snapping shut. The brunette looked…Kara thought that angry didn’t quite cover it, insulted maybe?

“Kara, what are you thinking? Who is that guy?” Alex spoke quickly, pacing toward Kara as she did.

“I told you about him before,” Kara began. “He’s the Green Arrow, he’s a hero from Barry’s Earth.”

“He’s a civilian.” Alex stated bluntly. “A civilian, with a hood and a bow, and you’re going to get him killed.”

For someone so used to being invulnerable, Kara really felt the sting of those words. She knew it wasn’t true, she’d seen the way the Oliver handled himself during the Dominator attack, he would definitely be able to hold his own. The fact that Alex didn’t trust her judgment hurt though, she knew Alex hadn’t said what she did just to be cruel she was…well, Kara didn’t actually know why Alex had been in such a bad mood, but she was going to find out.

“No, he won’t, Alex.” Kara retorted after a moment. “You haven’t seen his world, what’s it like. Where Oliver is from people are heroes because they had these incredible gifts given to them, and they wanted to use them for good. Oliver isn’t like them, he doesn’t have any powers, but he would still go 10 rounds against General Zod if he thought he could save someone’s life.”

Going by the look on Alex’s face, Kara had surprised her with that defence of Oliver. If she was being honest, Kara had surprised herself too. She had no idea where it had come from, she didn’t even know Oliver that well and yet she was ready to argue with her sister just to defend his status as a hero?

After a few moments of stunned silence, Alex spoke. “Are you sure you can trust him?”

“Yes.” Kara answered with as much confidence as she could muster. “Look, Alex, you’re my sister, and I love you, but you need to give Oliver a chance. Just give him a shot to prove himself.”

“Fine.” Alex responded quickly. “He gets one shot.”

Kara practically lit up at that, her smile quickly overtaking her features again. She knew that Oliver would only need that one chance to prove himself to her; he was, after all, that good. Which meant that they had Alex on side. As much as going toe-to-toe with Cadmus was Kara’s problem, she knew just how much of a stake Alex had in it all, and Kara truly believed that Oliver was their best chance to take them down.

“Thank you!” Kara all but shouted, pulling her sister into a tight hug.

Alex quickly returned her sister’s embrace. “If he screws this up I’ll end him.”

Separating the two with a laugh, Kara met Alex’s eyes. “I wouldn’t be too sure you could, Oliver is pretty stubborn.”

“Well, I think you’ll find…”

Before Alex could finish the sound of an alarm rang out. After a brief glance at each other, the two sisters headed for the door, heading quickly back to the control room. As they walked in, Kara saw J’onn, Oliver and Winn stood around the central monitor, Winn typing something into his tablet.

“What’ve we got?” Kara asked as she reached the trio.

“Bank robbery. Guess 24 hours without a Supergirl sighting has given these guys some false confidence.” Winn answered without looking up.

“Alright, time to go remind them that Supergirl is still here.” Kara spoke.

As she turned to head out, Kara felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning her head, Kara saw Oliver, a determined, yet somewhat smug, grin on his face. Before he even spoke Kara knew what he wanted to do, and she felt a small surge of pride for him at that.

“I’ll handle it.” Oliver announced, more to the rest of the room than Kara, clearly having seen the recognition in her eyes.

With a small nod of agreement from her, Oliver dropped his arm from Kara’s shoulder and started walking towards the wall-sized window at the far end of the room. With confidence, and a purpose in his step, Oliver pulled on his hood and mask without a glance back to Kara or the others. As the glass doors slid open before him Oliver stepped out into the night and pulled an arrow from his quiver, drawing back his bow.

“Mr. Queen.” J’onn’s voice rang out. “You are not authorised to operate in my city.”

Oliver turned his head to look at J’onn, a grin on his lips.

“I’m a vigilante, J’onn, not a hero. Try and stop me.”

Without another word, Oliver leapt from the balcony, disappearing from sight.

 

_XXX_

Winn had talked Oliver in as soon as he’d hit the streets as Green Arrow, and he had to admit; it was insanely cool. Working with James when he was out on patrol as Guardian was a thrill, but working with Oliver was something else entirely.

Just on meeting him Winn had nearly freaked out. Kara had told him a little bit about Oliver after her field-trip to Earth-1 to fight The Dominators, and Winn had proceeded to grill Kara for every single detail he could about the Emerald Archer, it was useful to have a point of reference for his vigilante exploits with James. So, meeting Oliver had been pretty damn cool, especially when J’onn had asked Winn to show him around the D.E.O.

Winn had barely had a chance to introduce himself before the alarm had gone off, and the moment it did Oliver had subtly asked him for a comms device, a request to which Winn quickly accented. He was seriously looking forward to being tech support for Green Arrow in the field.

In fact, Winn had all-but been reduced to a glorified Sat-Nav for Oliver, and that was only because he was yet to learn his way around National City. As soon as he’d entered the bank Oliver had gone silent, and Winn had just sat and watched him on the security cameras. Unlike Guardian, The Green Arrow didn’t need any assistance in a fight. It was as though he had a sixth-sense, even when he had his back turned to an opponent, Oliver still seemed to know exactly where they were.

Still, watching The Green Arrow taking down a whole group of armed bank robbers over CCTV was awesome.

 

_XXX_

J’onn had very nearly gone after Oliver Queen when he’d jumped from the balcony at the D.E.O., but Kara had insisted they trust him. He’d felt pretty damn uneasy about the whole thing, and was on edge the whole time they were stood waiting for The Green Arrow to reach the bank. While he didn’t have a problem having Oliver around in an advisory capacity for the whole Cadmus situation, letting a rogue vigilante operate in National City was unnerving to say the least, even with Kara’s vote of confidence.

Then again, if anything did go wrong J’onn knew that Supergirl could be at the bank in a few seconds.

Winn had tapped into the banks security cameras, and needless to say; J’onn was impressed.

Despite Kara’s insistence that Oliver Queen knew what he was doing, J’onn hadn’t been wholly convinced that he could handle himself out in the field. The footage from the cameras at the bank had completely proved him wrong.

For a human, Oliver Queen was pretty impressive.

He handled himself differently to the way J’onn had seen most people fight, sticking to the shadows, only emerging when it suited him. His style said a lot about how he was trained, and the way he operated, there was a reason The Green Arrow was considered a vigilante on his world.

If J’onn had sent Supergirl to that bank, the men would have been sent to jail with a handful of bruises and maybe a bad concussion or two, with Oliver though… The bank robbers were going to have to be sent to the hospital before the NCPD could arrest them. Instead of just binding them as Guardian did, Green Arrow opted to completely immobilise the robbers, they were going to be left with some serious injuries. 

That made J’onn pause for thought. He didn’t have a huge moral objection to what Oliver was doing, his problem was that it was illegal and J’onn liked to do his best to operate within the parameters of the law. Kara though…J’onn knew that she was going to struggle to reconcile Oliver's behaviour with the man she seemed to think he was.

 

_XXX_

Kara had bubbled with excitement as Oliver swung from the balcony of the D.E.O. and out into the night of National City. She could tell how apprehensive are sister and J’onn were, even if Kara wasn’t as talented at reading people as Oliver was, the looks they’d both given her were hardly subtle. She’d felt an impressive pride for Winn, who had somehow managed to direct Oliver without freaking out as he’d done with Clark, so that was good.

Other than his very brief interaction with Winn, Oliver had been all-but silent over the comms, it said a lot about him. He was…Kara hesitated to say better, but Oliver most certainly beat all of her team on the experience level. Barry had managed to fill her in on some of the details of Oliver's journey, but the speedster hadn’t known many of the detail himself, apparently Oliver was pretty closed off about his time before becoming the Green Arrow.

Kara hoped she could change that.

Seeing him in action at the bank had been different, almost painfully so. When they’d fought the Dominators, Kara had understood Oliver's aggressive tactics, he was fighting aliens and, after all, his whole planet was at risk. When he’d fought the robbers at the bank though, Oliver had used the exact same level of force. That was something Kara couldn’t understand.

Clearly, Oliver knew what he was doing, he could’ve taken those criminals out with minimal force, a few careful blows and they’d been unconscious without them even realising he was there. Instead, he’d chosen to hit them with near-lethal attacks, making sure that they’d need a visit to A&E before they were on their feet again.

As soon as Kara had seen him handle the first robber, one arrow to the deltoid and another to the vastus medialis, she’d wanted to stop him. Except, Kara couldn’t move. She’d been frozen in shock, especially when he continued to make his way through the group of armed robbers, employing the same brutal tactics as he did. Once he’d dropped the last robber, and Winn had made the call to NCPD that the bank was secure, Kara was sure of only one thing:

Oliver Queen was not the man she thought he was.

 

_XXX_

Oliver was feeling pretty good as he made his way back to the D.E.O. building. A bank robbery had been exactly what he’d needed to work out the considerable stress he had managed to accumulate in the short amount of time he had spent on Kara’s world. The journey back was taking much longer than it should have done though.

There was something tranquil about National City, something that Oliver couldn’t quite place but it was most definitely there. The place reminded him of Star City, but with a sense of purity that had long been lacking from his home. The sky was different too, somehow clearer despite the city being as large and as busy as his own. He really was on a different planet.

So, Oliver had chosen to slowly make his way along the rooftops as opposed to zipping across the city on his grapple as he had done the first time. He’d also switched his comms device off after announcing that he was about to make his return, so there had been a real chance to take in the city. Despite his desire to enjoy the city a little longer, Oliver knew he needed to return to the D.E.O. and so, put a little more spring in his step, changing his course for a more direct one.

It took him just shy of 5 minutes to make it back to the D.E.O., and Oliver couldn’t help but question the choice of placing the headquarters for a covert branch of the government in the middle of such a highly populated city. At least A.R.G.U.S. had the subtlety to place their central building outside the city limits.

Jumping back onto the balcony, Oliver rolled his shoulders, taking a moment to compose himself before stepping inside. As he entered the building, the large glass window sliding open to allow him access, Oliver was greeted by a clearly irate Kara. The blonde looked furious, there was red in her cheeks, a scowl across her features, her arms crossed over her chest and she stood a little taller than usual.

Oliver was in for it.

“What the hell was that?” Kara fumed, crossing the short distance between herself and Oliver in a few short strides.

“That was me doing my job, Kara.” Oliver shot back quickly, pulling off his hood and mask with his free hand as he did.

“Your job? You didn’t just stop those men, you hospitalised them!”

“We’re not all bulletproof. When I’m in the field, if I put someone down I need to know they stay down. Unlike you, I can’t risk them getting back up in putting a few rounds in my back.”

“You could’ve killed them! You…”

“So what if I had? I’ve killed before, Kara, plenty of times. This life makes it necessary.”

Her words had pushed Oliver over the edge, he’d been biting his tongue a little, he was on Kara’s world after all. But, in the end, she had been the one to ask for his help, that was what his help looked like, and if Kara didn’t like it then she could send him back to his own world.

She looked completely stunned at that, Oliver's outburst had not only affected Kara but had grabbed the attention of most of the room. To their credit, the agents were trying to be professional but the clear majority were staring at them in awe.

Oliver felt his own features fall a little as he took in Kara’s reaction. The worst part was, Oliver wasn’t even sure if he believed what he said himself, not anymore. After everything that had happened with Prometheus, the things he’d learnt about himself, what Felicity had said to him when they were trapped in The Bunker…Oliver knew he had changed. He had been so sure that he’d been justified every time he’d killed before, Darhk especially, but something about the way Kara was looking at him was making him doubt that more than Chase had ever been able to.

His left-hand tightening around his bow, Oliver took a tentative step towards Kara.

“Kara, I…”

“Save it, Oliver.” Kara snapped, glaring at him. The faint blue fizzle in her eyes didn’t escape Oliver's attention, she’d clearly moved from shock to anger.

Without another word, Kara pushed past him and walked to the balcony, taking to the skies the moment she was outside. With a sigh of defeat, Oliver felt the involuntary slump of his shoulders. He had seriously screwed this up.

 

_XXX_

Kara had given up on anger the moment she’d made it back to her apartment and changed out of her Supergirl uniform.

She hadn’t wanted to, not at all. Kara had wanted to stay angry at Oliver, at what he’d done, the way he’d acted, but she just couldn’t. After seeing the way Green Arrow had handled the bank robbery, Kara had been stunned, Oliver had proved himself not to be the hero she’d expected. Then, to hear him defend murdering criminals, that had made Kara furious. She couldn’t imagine that any part of Oliver thought the killing was ever an answer, but the way he’d said it, so sure and so angry, she’d believed him.

So, she’d stormed out. It had seemed like a better idea than throwing him off the roof of the D.E.O. building.

The short flight back to her home had been more than enough to settle Kara’s anger. Flying had always been almost like meditation to her, it allowed Kara to reflect peacefully, without the noise and bustle of the city overwhelming her. Her thoughts were mostly of Oliver, about how little she knew of him, but most significantly about the small quantity of information Barry had given her on Oliver's past.

All that he’d been able to tell her was that Oliver had been in a shipwreck, and stranded on an island for five years while his family were forced to believe he had died, something Kara knew a little more about than she’d ever hoped to. Then, he’d returned home with his mission to become the hero his city needed, even if that wasn’t how he saw himself.

Oliver Queen had been Earth-1’s first superhero.

Kara couldn’t begin to image what those five years must’ve done to him, the way that kind of suffering would have shaped him. If even a small piece of Oliver truly believed what he had said to her then it was because of what he had endured, and everything he’d lost since.

If anything, Kara had quickly come to blame herself for that argument. She had been the one to ask Oliver to her Earth, she was the one who insisted he go out in the field alone without them seeing how he fought, she was the one who was expecting Oliver to play by the rules of an entirely different world. That wasn’t as fair to him as Kara had first thought.

Before Kara could continue to berate herself any further, a sharp rap at the door stole her attention. As wrapped up in her thoughts as she was, Kara didn’t even think to x-ray vison the door to see who her guest was, instead just marching over and pulling the door open.

To her surprise, Kara was presented with an almost nervous looking Oliver Queen standing in her hallway, his Green Arrow suit swapped for civilian clothes.

“O…Oliver?” Kara stumbled, her shock getting the better of her.

“Hey, Kara.” Oliver spoke gently.

Taking a step to one side, Kara motioned for him to enter, closing the door behind him as he did. As Kara turned around, the two came face-to-face, each looking as nervous as the other, neither entirely sure of what to say first.

“Was it Winn?” Kara suddenly blurted, on seeing the confused look on Oliver's face she continued. “That told you where I live?”

With a faint smile pulling at his lips Oliver answered. “Alex, believe it or not. Told me to apologise like I meant it or get put down.”

Kara almost laughed at that, of course Alex had gone full-on big sister mode after her fight with Oliver. It was a nice feeling for Kara, knowing that Alex had opted to threaten Oliver into making things right with her, as opposed to just throwing him back through the breech to his Earth, it was Alex’s way of showing she cared. With a smile now teasing against her lips at the image of Alex threatening Oliver, Kara took a few paces into the living space of her apartment, the faint sound of Oliver's footfalls following her.

“I’m sorry.” Kara began as she turned to face Oliver. “I shouldn’t have just stormed out like that.”

“You’ve got nothing to apologise for, Kara.” Oliver tried, but the Kryptonian continued as if she hadn’t heard him.

“We’re from different worlds, Oliver, and I’m pretty sure that’s the first time that expression has been used literally. I just…I didn’t think that the way things worked for you would be different to how they worked for me, it was stupid and it was selfish…”

“It was _human_.” Oliver cut over her. “Kara, you wanted to believe that I was like you, like Barry…the truth is that I can’t afford to be. I can’t count on super-speed to get me out of trouble or impenetrable skin to save me from a bullet, when I’m out there as the Green Arrow I have to rely on my skill and my smarts to survive.”

“But that wasn’t just surviving, Oliver.” Kara spoke, taking an unconscious step towards Oliver as she did. “I know you’re better than that, you could have handle those guys without hurting them the way you did.”

“I’m not.” Oliver began softly. “Kara, you think I’m this…hero, you…”

There was something in his eyes when he spoke that Kara couldn’t place, a kind of vulnerability that seemed so strange in someone as guarded as Oliver. It almost hurt Kara to see it, and in that moment, a small part of her swore that she would do whatever she could to help Oliver.

“Because you are a hero, Oliver. Maybe more so than the rest of us, because you don’t have powers and you’re still out there and taking the same risks as me or Barry would. You deserve to be called a hero.”

Kara hadn’t realised when it had happened, but somehow the two of them had completely closed whatever distance they’d had, and Kara had subconsciously taken Oliver's hands in her own. The two had clearly been so absorbed in the other’s words that their bodies had been acting of their own accord. Oliver must’ve realised that at the same time as Kara, his eyes briefly glancing down to their hands before flicking up to meet Kara’s again.

“Kara, I…”

Before Oliver could say another word, a powerful blue light was cast over them, the two jumping apart to look at the strange light that was now hovering over Kara’s dining room. The light let out a sound, like light raindrops against glass, and began dancing around the room. The two heroes pan in circles for a few moments, following the light in confusion until it settled before one of the windows in the living space.

“Darling.” A voice came from the light at it took a human form.

“Who the hell are you?” Kara asked incredulously at the man who was now stood in her home.

“My name is Mister Mxyzptlk.” The stranger began as he took a step towards the duo. “And, Kara Zor-El, I love you.


	4. Chapter 4

 

_“Kara Zor-El, I love you.”_

Oliver and Kara both froze at the strange arrival, the two manging to share a completely stunned look for a brief moment before their, clearly alien, visitor drew their attention again. Rubbing his hands together to create the same blue light, Mxyzptlk started looking around the room, seemingly judging his environment.

“First, let’s set the mood! Candles.” With a snap of his fingers a blue light burst into the room and candles appeared throughout the room.

Oliver was, somehow, even more stunned. He’d seen magic before but the tricks Constantine and Darhk used paled in comparison to whatever force the stranger was harnessing. He was however particularly glad to see that Kara was in as much of a state of shock as he was, at least he could put this particular experience down to ‘ _freak of the week_ ’ as opposed to the other insane things that Earth-38 considered normal.

“Who are you?” Kara managed while Mxyzptlk continued to do…whatever it was he was doing.

Oliver was, thankfully, unsurprised when the visitor didn’t give an answer, instead continuing to bounce around the room. It was clear enough that the visitor had stated his intentions, and there seemed to be nothing that would distract him from them. The situation couldn’t help but to remind Oliver of what he had been like when he’d proposed to Felicity, except that this visitor was doing all of that planning in a few short seconds.

Mxyzptlk kept moving around the room, with a word he brought things to existence in a flash of blue light. Suddenly, the room was filled with scented candles, a string quartet and, with a dramatic twirl from the visitor, several bundles of flowers.

“And for the piece de resistance,” Mxyzptlk continued, sliding to one knee in front of Kara. “The ring.”

Kara glanced down at the, or should have been had it been bought, expensive ring, seemingly even more confused than she was before.

“Kara, sweetie, it's like I said. I'm your one true love, your soulmate, your one true pairing as the kids say. My name is Mxyzptlk and I love you, Kara Zor-El.”

“Uh…uh…” Kara stammered, looking across to Oliver in her stupor as if he would be able to provide some kind of answer.

“Tell me… Will you marry me?” Mxyzptlk finished with a quirk of his eyebrow. 

Kara’s eyes went wide as she let out a nervous laugh.

“ _I can show you the world!_ ”

Wasn’t that… _Aladdin_? A small part of Oliver's brain decided he’d have to thank Thea for making him watch all those Disney movies when they were kids, his recognition of the song forcing a re-boot of the vast majority of his brain function. The part of Oliver's mind that handled his decades of compartmentalisation clicked back into action and he took a step in front of Kara, placing himself between her and the visitor.

“Hey!” Oliver snapped, taking the man by the lapels of his jacket and pulling him to his feet. “Slow down, from the top. Who are you?”

Oliver took a step back, realising the anger he’d just displayed. Maybe he was a little more uncomfortable about the whole situation than he thought, though, never one to admit that, Oliver put it down to pent up anger from his argument with Kara.

“Ah, Oliver Queen of another reality. I must say I didn’t expect you, but no matter, you’re no romantic rival.” Mxyzptlk answered, throwing an arrogant grin at the archer.

Oliver gave Kara a sideways glance at that, the blonde simply shrugging in confusion. Before either of them could say another word, Mxyzptlk vanished in a flash of blue light and reappeared behind Oliver, stood at Kara’s side as Oliver himself had been moments ago. Frustration grew over Oliver's features as he spun on his heel to face the trickster, and from the reaction he got, both Mxyzptlk and Kara noticed.

“I must say, while you are nothing more than white noise, I want to be alone with my love.”

As Oliver opened his mouth to retort, Mxyzptlk snapped his fingers and a blue light consumed Oliver's vision. A moment later, the light faded and Oliver quickly realised that he was no longer in Kara’s apartment. Thankfully, he still knew his surroundings, he’d been sent back to the D.E.O.

“Mr. Queen?” A voice came, and Oliver glanced across to see J’onn staring at him with a puzzled look.

“I’m gonna kill him.” Oliver mutter to himself before quickly walking towards the other man. “It’s Kara,” Oliver announced. “I think she might be in trouble.”

_XXX_

“You’ve just been visited by a 5th Dimensional being.” J’onn explained as if that answer would mean anything.

Okay, so maybe Oliver was at a bit of a disadvantage on that field, he didn’t have close to a third of the knowledge that any other person on Earth-38 had of aliens. J’onn’s explanation might have had a little more impact if Oliver had known any more of aliens than the two he’d had conversations with. The conversation around him was only half in his attention, Oliver was just glad they’d got Kara back and that trickster hadn’t whisked her away to some other planet for a wedding against her will.

Oliver had been changed into his Green Arrow suit by the time Kara had made it to the D.E.O. a few minutes prior. Not that he thought arrows would do him much good against someone with the ability to bring and remove things from existence at will but it made him feel a little more in control. J’onn had to call off the strike team he’d assembled too, the two men had shared a sigh of relief on seeing the Kryptonian return.

“Wait, you’ve seen one of these before?” Kara questioned J’onn, pulling him back to the conversation.

“Not here on Earth, on Mars.” J’onn spoke as the trio reached the central desk in the computer space. “One of them moved the Xan’Xie mountains halfway across the planet during the Zook Uprising.”

Oliver had to assume that at least some of those words had actual meanings attached to them, he really would have to get Kara to give him an abridged history of Earth-38’s contact with aliens so he could tell which information was new to everyone, and what was just new to him.

“Fifth Dimensional lifeforms possess the ability to warp our reality to their own whims. Abilities that would appear, to all intents and purposes, to be magic.” 

Mxyzptlk’s powers weren’t actually magical in nature, Oliver wasn’t sure whether he sound find that information reassuring or unnerving. If they had been, he might have just been able to chalk them up to an extension of everything he’d seen with Darhk, and there was a good chance he could have dealt with that. Hearing that those powers were really the bending of reality to the whims of one man, that was far from being okay with him.

Just the idea that one person could possess that amount of power was a little horrifying. Sure, Kara was essentially an all-powerful being but she had weaknesses, but placing her next to Mxyzptlk really put that ‘ _all-powerful_ ’ thing into perspective. Oliver had also been forced to just gloss over the whole 5th Dimension thing, he really was going to have to take a look at some of the D.E.O.’s records at some stage.

“What looks like magic?” A new voice sounded, Oliver wheeling around to face the source. Before he even had a chance to question the arrival, the new man realised Oliver's presence. “And who’s he?”

“Mon-El, this is Oliver Queen, from Earth-1.” Kara smiled. “Oliver, meet Mon-El of Daxam.”

It didn’t escape Oliver's notice that Mon-El wasn’t particularly receptive to him, the other man giving him an untrusting and scrutinizing stare. Never one to back down, Oliver gave as good as he got, studying the _Daxamite_ intently, trying to pick up on any of the tiny details about him. It took hardly a moment for Kara to pick up on the obvious tension between the two and so, after a pointed look from the blonde Kryptonian, the two stubbornly shook hands.

Oliver did his best to ignore the almost painfully firm grip Mon-El had, clearly super strength was one of his abilities, and he had no doubt that the alien could have broken every bone in his hand if he had wanted to.

“As for the magic,” Kara sighed. “I got visited by someone from the 5th Dimension.”

“On Daxam we had a zero-tolerance policy for those creatures.” Mon-El spoke, clearly having some kind of history with the beings that Oliver filed away to investigate later.

“You had them on Daxam?” Kara asked quickly.

“Yeah. And those guys knew how to party,” He answered. “But they’re dangerous. Very dangerous.”

Oliver eyed Mon-El even more curiously at that. There was something about the man that didn’t quite agree with him, something he couldn’t quite place. The obvious reason was that he reminded Oliver of himself, or the man that he had been over a decade past. It had been the way he spoke, immediately bringing up the way that 5th Dimensional beings were party-animals after saying his planet had a zero-tolerance policy for them. Oliver couldn’t deny he had experience with that; the status and money of the Queen family meant nothing had been off-limits to him.

Despite that, Oliver felt something deeper. For the sake of the conversation he was involved in, Oliver pushed that down.

“ _Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind?_ You got it.” Winn’s voice came from the computer bank as Oliver zoned back in.

“Oh, hey, J’onn.” Winn continued. “We are ready to send your message to Mars as soon as you are.”

“What message?” Kara asked, at the same time as Oliver asked. “ _To_ _Mars?_ ”

J’onn gave something of an amused look to Oliver for his disbelief before turning back to Kara.

“On Earth, it’s customary to send messages on Valentine’s Day. We had a similar custom on Mars.”

“It’s too bad you can’t call her.” Kara spoke, a hint of sadness in her voice.

“We Martian’s are a psychic people. All our communication was through thought…”

Oliver zoned out again as J’onn continued to speak, two particular thoughts going through his mind.

J’onn was apparently psychic and could communicate telepathically. That raised two questions. What exactly did a Martian’s super-powers include and, more importantly, could J’onn read minds? The first was a little inconsequential, from what Oliver understood J’onn was the last of his kind, so he wasn’t expecting to go toe-to-toe with a Martian anytime soon, but it would be useful to know. The second was pretty damned important, because if he could, had he been reading Oliver's mind the whole time?

As J’onn walked away, leaving Oliver, Kara and Mon-El together, the archer decided to raise his concerns about J’onn later, when he was alone with Kara.  There was a brief pause between the trio, before Kara flashed the two men one of her signature smiles and bounded away with a comment about finding her sister that neither Oliver nor Mon-El paid any real attention to.

“So, Oliver,” Mon-El spoke as soon as Kara had left his sight, seeming to stand a little taller as he did. “You run out of bad guys to beat down on Earth-1 or something?”

At those words, the archer turned himself to face Mon-El, his body language changing from that of Oliver Queen to the way he carried himself as Green Arrow. Oliver was never one to back down, especially given the accusatory tone Mon-El was using. The accusation made Oliver realise something though, something he had subconsciously chosen to ignore when Mon-El had arrived; the Damaxite’s eyes had gone straight to Kara when he had walked in. Between that and the instant hostility he had shown towards Oliver, the conclusion was pretty obvious.

Mon-El was attracted to Kara.

Oliver couldn’t blame him, he knew Kara was an attractive woman, even if he hadn’t known about her other life as Supergirl Oliver didn’t doubt that he would be drawn to _Kara Danvers_ anyway. The difference was, the looks Mon-El gave her were somehow deeper than that, there was an emotion in his eyes that Oliver couldn’t quite place.

“Actually,” Oliver began after a short pause, knowing exactly which buttons to push to rile the other man. “Kara invited me here, she asked for my help.”

Mon-El actually scoffed at that. “You? What could some punk in green leather possibly have to offer her?”

The aggression in Mon-El’s voice at that made some kind of connection in Oliver's brain, taking a pause from the conversation as he ran through the night’s events. He had no idea why he had been so on edge. At the bank, a few hours earlier that night, he had gone a little overboard, Oliver knew that, but he was trying to make an impression. With Mxyzptlk he had been unnecessarily aggressive, and now with Mon-El he had become increasingly aggravated when he’d realised the other man was attracted to Kara.

Was he...?

No, that idea was ridiculous. Oliver was not getting defensive over Kara, he had barely been around the girl for two days the last time they met, and he’d been on her Earth less than 5 hours. There was something about her though, some sense of innocence and naivety, that she hadn’t been scared by the traumas of her past like Oliver had, something that inspired two very different sensations within him.

Part of him wanted to wake Kara up to the real world, to help her see the shades of grey that became so obvious with the way that they lived their lives, but Kara had somehow manged to ignore. The other part of him wanted to protect her, to save Kara from becoming like him, but from what Barry had told him Kara was doing an excellent job of that herself. She had lost her entire civilisation, save her cousin, and yet she was still more hopeful than Oliver could ever remember himself being.

If, however, Oliver had been thinking rationally, he would have been able to fully extend that reasoning to defend his actions against Mon-El and Mxyzptlk. Yet, he would never admit that.

_XXX_

Oliver had chosen to handle his argument with Mon-El the way he handled most disagreements he had, by ignoring the problem and punching things. The Daxamite had taken it as an admission of defeat when Oliver had slipped into thought without answering him, and had walked away with a scoff. When the archer snapped into reality again, and had been met with the back of the other man as he walked away, Oliver had asked Winn to point him in the direction of the nearest training room.

Given that he hadn’t actually managed to sleep and midnight was quickly approaching, Oliver had purely intended to work his frustrations out until he was exhausted enough to sleep. As per his terrible karma though, he had no such luck. Oliver had manged to spend a little over two hours in the training room, switching between his usual, brutal work-out regimen and practicing with his bow, but by the end of it all he only seemed to find himself even more tightly wound than he had been before.

When he finally decided to leave the training room in search of a new distraction, Oliver was greeted with the skeleton crew that ran the D.E.O. during the graveyard shift. With the way that the building had been so busy on his arrival, Oliver had assumed that there would be a full crew running the facility 24/7. While it was a little strange to see the building so empty, Oliver supposed that The Bunker was no different, if anything it was somewhat worse, but with the amount of automaton Felicity had programmed into it, they didn’t always need to have someone working the systems there.

As Oliver had mused on what to do next he was greeted by J’onn, who apparently must have lived at the D.E.O., or incredibly close by at the least to still be in the building at that ungodly an hour.

“Mr. Queen?” J’onn spoke, something of a puzzled look on his face. “I thought you’d left with Kara?”

So, Oliver began to think, maybe J’onn wasn’t using his powers to read his mind. If he was, then he wouldn’t need to ask that question, or perhaps he was just being polite.

“No, I needed to…” Oliver trailed off briefly, thinking about how to phrase it. “Work some stuff out.”

J’onn offered him a small grin at that, his head nodding a little in understanding.

“Mon-El will warm up to you eventually.” J’onn spoke carefully. “He’s just a little mistrusting of people, especially if he thinks he’s protecting Kara.”

Oliver couldn’t help the look of shock when J’onn spoke, and the Martian clearly noticed.

“I didn’t read your mind, if that’s what you’re thinking.” J’onn smiled, clearly used to the same look Oliver gave him from other people. “I just know Mon-El well enough to know that, and to notice that you didn’t seem especially fond of him either.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, Oliver threw his best disapproving glare at J’onn, something Diggle had helped him perfect over the years. He wasn’t _not_ _fond_ of Mon-El, there was just something about the man that Oliver couldn’t agree with, not that he actually knew what that something was. Mon-El reminded Oliver a little of himself when he had been in his earlier days on the island, when he had met Slade and Shado, being forced to become something greater than he had been. So maybe he shouldn’t have been judging Mon-El so harshly, if he was anything like Oliver then he deserved the benefit of the doubt.

His comment about 5th Dimensional creatures being party animals still tugged at the back of Oliver's mind though.

“I don’t dislike him.” Oliver answered J’onn firmly. “I just don’t trust him yet.”

The look J’onn threw him at that wasn’t easy to miss. For all accounts, Oliver didn’t have a reason to trust any of them yet, with the exception of Kara. They seemed like good people though, Oliver supposed, Alex was clearly protective of Kara, something Oliver could respect, J’onn quite clearly had the respect of all his people, making Oliver think that he should too, and Winn reminded him weirdly of both Cisco and Felicity, which was good enough for him.

J’onn looked as though he was about to say something, but before he had the chance and alarm sounded, the same one they had heard earlier during the bank robbery. The two men shared a quick look of agreement before quickly heading to the centre of the operations room. Winn was already briefing them before they came to a stop, and Mon-El joined them at the same time.

Oliver didn’t have a clue what a ‘Parasite’ was. Well, he did, but not when it was a hulking, purple, 10-foot tall alien… _thing_. He did know that it was causing some considerable damage right outside Kara’s apartment. Mon-El had set off immediately at that piece of information, not even giving the others in the room a word as he turned and ran out the same balcony Oliver had used earlier. Knowing that Kara’s apartment was close enough for him to reach quickly, Oliver turned and began to head for the balcony, glad that he was still donning his Green Arrow suit.

“Mr. Queen, this creature is an exceptionally powerful, alien lifeform. You need to let Supergirl handle this.”  J’onn called after him.

Oliver didn’t answer, simply pulling up his hood and leaping once more from the balcony.

_XXX_

The night air was cooling, something Oliver was thankful for as he rounded the last corner to Kara’s apartment. He dropped onto the nearest rooftop just in time to see Mon-El getting thrown through a bus-stop by the creature. Noticing Kara on the ground, clearly having taken a hit or two, Oliver leapt from the roof, instinct kicking in.

Landing between Kara and the monster, Oliver drew back his bow, letting off two rapid shots, both with explosive payloads. The creature briefly disappeared in a ball of flame, but Oliver couldn’t fight his concern at seeing it had only been knocked back a step or two when the explosion dissipated.

Loading another arrow, Oliver heard Kara and Mon-El exchange a few words behind him. Not taking his eyes of the creature, Oliver recognised the sound of footsteps until he caught sight of the two aliens in his peripheral, Kara on his right and Mon-El to his left. Ignoring the look Mon-El was giving him, Oliver tensed. With a vicious roar, the monster took a step forward and then…

“Up in the sky!”

“It’s a bird!”

“It’s a plane!”

“It’s…”

In a red and blue blur that Oliver would have sworn was Kara had she not been standing right next to him, the creature disappeared. A figure landing with his back to the trio a moment later, a red cape spilling from his shoulders. Oliver didn’t lower his bow as the figure and Kara stepped forward and used their… _super-breath?_ …to smother flames that were forming on the road.

“Superman?” Kara spoke when the flames were doused.

With a heavy flair and a _swish_ of his cape, the man turned.

“Not quite.”

_XXX_

Oliver had been forced to quickly become accustomed to a lot of things since his arrival on Earth-38, but the way Kara and Mon-El argued was beginning to test his patience.

When Mxyzptlk had revealed himself and his plans, Oliver had elected to step back and observe, he had been unnervingly out of his depth. Witnessing the ensuing verbal fight and Mon-El’s admittance that he knew how to defeat these 5th Dimensional things had been…an experience, but the way the two were arguing since the trio returned to the D.E.O. was beyond irritating. Though, Oliver had realised himself, most of his irritation came from the fact that he was currently siding with Mon-El.

He made a reasonable point, how would it be possible to even begin to get Mxyzptlk to say his name backwards, Oliver didn’t think he would be able to say it forward. He knew all too well that certain people only responded to violence, tricking a being with phenomenal cosmic powers might just be a ballpark they wouldn’t be able to play in, but Kara’s moral code meant that she would only accept the peaceful solution.

Maybe there was a way they could…

“…sometimes you’re not a good judge of what you can handle.”

_Shit_.

Kara span on her heel, turning to face Mon-El. Oliver had almost tuned out of their argument until that had caught his attention, and clearly it had fully caught Kara’s too.

“So…There it is.” Mon-El finished.

“ _Really?_ ” Kara spoke, worrying Oliver a little with the complete lack of anger in her voice. “Is that why you didn’t tell me the secret to getting Mxy off Earth was to get him to say his name backwards, because you didn’t think I could handle it?”

“No. I didn’t tell you that because it never works.” Mon-El shot back. “Because…”

“Enough!” Oliver snapped at them, drawing the attention of a few of the surrounding agents as well as the two aliens. “Unless you’ve forgotten we’ve still got some all-powerful psychopath on the loose, and the two of you arguing like children is not going to get us any closer to finding him.”

The small feeling of pride that went through Oliver at that was one he quickly suppressed, but he had just managed to make two incredibly powerful aliens look ashamed, that was worth a small win in his book. The almost embarrassed expressions the duo now wore was accompanied by a silence, and Oliver took his time to give them his most convincing look of disapproval (the one he had mastered for Thea’s boyfriends).

 “Mon-El, find Winn and see if he’s manged to find anything that might be able to help.” Oliver's tone left no room for discussion. “Kara, a word.”

With that, Oliver stepped away, heading for the room where his equipment was being stored. Hearing nothing further from Kara or Mon-El, and with the faint sound of footfalls behind him, Oliver could only assume that his scolding had been taking seriously, and that the two were following his orders. Pushing through into the storage room, and leaving the door open, he moved straight for the duffle bag, removing his quiver and placing it on the table beside it.

Oliver's mask quickly joined it and he began unzipping his jacket, the sound of the door clicking shut making him turn. Shrugging the jacket off, Oliver tossed it to the table, his eyes not moving of Kara as he did. She almost looked a little timid, and it didn’t escape Oliver attention that her eyes were drawn to his exposed chest for a moment. Pulling on a t-shirt and letting out a sigh, Oliver spoke.

“I know you don’t like it, Kara, but Mon-El might just have a point.” Before the Kryptonian could argue Oliver continued. “I’m not saying that there isn’t another way, but if this guy keeps escalating then National City could be a crater by this time tomorrow. Tell me honestly, do you have another option?”

Almost immediately he knew those words were the wrong ones, Kara’s face filled with anger in a second and her presence practically doubled. If Oliver hadn’t known just how firm her moral compass was, he might have been in brief fear for his life.

“I cannot believe you!” Kara burst, taking a few steps towards Oliver. “Everything I said the other night about doing things differently and you still want me to kill Mxy? Did you listen to a word I said?”

“Are you listening to yourself? You’ve started calling him Mxy!” Oliver shot back, instinctively tensing. “This is someone who literally has the power to erase you from existence with a snap of his fingers and you’ve given him a nickname. This…this is your problem Kara, you’re so above it all that the consequences go right by you.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Kara crossed her arms over her chest, almost trying to match Oliver for size.

“It means that you’ve never had to make a tough call, that you’ve never been stuck when the _only_ option is to take a life.”

“How do you do it, Oliver? What lie do you tell yourself so that you can sleep at night?”

“I tell myself the truth, that it’s necessary.” Oliver couldn’t help the way his voice rose a little at that. “Sometimes you don’t have another option, when you don’t have super-speed or heat-vision to give you a way out. Sometimes you end up stuck, watching the life drain out of your best friend because you’ve just driven an arrow through his eye, because he didn’t give you another choice. Just because you’re so blindingly naive Kara doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is.”

It was only as he finished speaking that Oliver fully realised what he had just said. It wasn’t something he usually did, having to defend himself so fully, most of the time it was aa simple ‘ _I kill because I have_ to’ and that was the ned of it. Kara had pushed him so much further, her unyielding worldview made it impossible for him to not get riled up. Not only that, but his breathing was heavy, his fists were clenched and Kara…Kara looked heartbroken, like he had just crushed her favourite puppy under his heel.

“You were right about one thing, Oliver.” Kara finally spoke, her voice practically a whisper, picking up a little as she continued. “You aren’t a hero”

There was no chance for defence, no room to argue, it had been resolute. Without anything else, not even meeting his eyes, Kara turned and walked from the room. There was no anger in her, just disappointment and sadness. As the door swung closed behind Kara, Oliver leaned back against the table, pinching the bridge of his nose and letting out a groan.

“Shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Hey! So…I’ve totally not been gone for like 6 months or anything…  
> All things considered, I’m impressed I even made it back to this story. I seriously struggled to write this chapter, just trying to reconnect with the characters and my plans for this story was a major hardship. Unsurprisingly this chapter is by far my least favourite so far, maybe it’s because I’m trying to follow the plot from the show though, I’m better when I’m off the leash.   
> Other than that, please drop a review, positive or negative, right now I need you guys’ feedback more than ever if I’m going to find the motivation to continue this story.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah, two updates in as many days? What is this sorcery? Well I checked my Nostradamus and this means that there probably won’t be an update until the next apocalypse so…  
> All things considered, this chapter just grabbed me the second I started writing it and then…boom it’s done. Again, I’m not a huge fan of this one and it isn’t proof read so I’ll probably update the chapter a few times to fix a mistake here or there.   
> The final scene of this chapter was written to Oscar Peterson’s Hymn to Freedom and I would highly recommended listening to it as you read, it really sets to mood that I have in my head for it.   
> Other than that, please enjoy, and leave a comment to let me know what you think!

“Tell me we’ve got something.” Oliver spoke firmly, walking into the office space.

He’d given it a little time before leaving the locker room, wanting to make sure that Kara had cleared the D.E.O. before he went exploring, not wanting to run into her again. While he knew full well that Kara wouldn’t physically harm him, just the sight of her would be painful. The way she had looked at him, eyes full of betrayal and disappointment, had almost done him in, almost made Oliver want to repent for just doing things that he had needed to do to survive.

Bringing up Slade hadn’t been intentional though, and Oliver couldn’t help the invasive memories pushing their way to the forefront his mind. He’d lied to Kara, that had been the hinge of it, because there had been a choice; the cure or the arrow. In the moment, there had only been one option, Oliver had truly believed Slade would make good on his promise, so what else was he to do? The Amazo was about to sink and Oliver wasn’t sure if he’d make it out alive himself, there was no choice to make. Even if five years later he’d accepted the mistake he had made, in the moment, there was no other way.

That was what he had wanted Kara to understand. He wasn’t like her and Barry, he couldn’t process a hundred different variables in only a second because he had super speed to help him out. Instinct was sometimes all he had, and Kara would never be able to understand that. He’d had all those thoughts while restocking his quiver of grappling and explosive arrows.

Once that had been finished, he’d set off in search of Mon-El and Winn, hoping that Kara would have already left. Thankfully, the blonde Kryptonian was nowhere to be found, and so Oliver had headed straight for Mon-El, the glass walls making him easy to locate. That, Oliver thought, was one of the benefits of the D.E.O. being a little less clandestine than A.R.G.U.S., the whole operation felt cleaner, less dark, yet somehow just as clinical. It was a strange line to walk, but so were most of the things Oliver found himself involved in. Winn had left just as Oliver had been arriving, the I.T. wizard mumbling something about ‘ _Starhaven_ ’ and ‘ _Valerian’s_ ’ under his breath.

“Winn only found two things that register for 5th Dimensional energy.” Mon-El answered, giving only a quick, disapproving glance at Oliver. 

Approaching the desk, Oliver took in the open boxes. One contained something resembling a pendant, a blue gem centred in a metal casing, a chain attached to the top. The other looked almost like an uncut diamond, dull but shinning blue at the same time. The blue, Oliver quickly realised, was almost identical in colour to the “magic” Mxyzptlk employed.

“We both know Kara won’t use these against him.” Mon-El spoke up, looking across at Oliver with a slightly more neutral expression. “One of the agents told me about the fight you had with Kara yesterday, you know what it’ll take to stop a guy like him.”

He hated it before and he hated it then, but Oliver had to agree with Mon-El. There were lines Kara wouldn’t cross that needed crossing, things that had to be done in the name of justice. Stopping a creature like Mxyzptlk required no line, there was nothing that would be off limits, Oliver knew that. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Proof enough was Mxyzptlk, infinite power that could be used to benefit the universe, and here he was using it to try and woo Kara. Oliver had firmly believed what he had said though, if Mxyzptlk continued escalating then National City was in big trouble.

“I know.” Oliver answered simply. “Kara won’t be forgiving if we do this.”

Mon-El sucked in a heavy breath before replying. “She’ll get over it.”

Oliver was almost inclined to forgive Mon-El at that, he was acting like a solider and that was what they both needed. Looking at the options they had, Oliver began to run a plan through in his head. There weren’t many obvious choices, and with someone as powerful as Mxyzptlk the room for variation was huge.

“What did Winn say these will do to him?” Oliver asked.

“No idea, we just need to find the imp and hit him with what we’ve got.”

Maybe…Oliver began to process, maybe there was an option. Something to keep Mxyzptlk off guard, lull him into one fight and use it as a trap for the other. They had two clear weapons, and there was definitely a way to utilise them both. An attack on two fronts then, Mon-El as the bait and Oliver as the killing blow. This might just work.

“Does the D.E.O. have something we can use to cut the rock?”

_XXX_

Of course, the imp had transported them. Why would anything about the plan actually go in their favour? Thankfully, Mon-El had been wearing a comms device, and Oliver had been able to track him down quickly enough. It was a stroke of luck that they had only moved a few blocks, by some miracle Mxyzptlk had chosen to stay in National City as opposed to just transporting Mon-El into the heart of the sun. The theatre had been easy enough to find and even easier to sneak into. Dropping through the roof, Oliver made his way through the circle, heading towards where the sounds of a fight bounded from.

“Why, you think she’s gonna be with you?” Oliver heard Mxyzptlk’s voice as he reached the edge of the circle. “Face it, what have you got to offer her? I can give her anything. There’s no contest between you and me, and you know it. I’m a god and you’re a loser.”

Just as the sound of more grappling reached him, Oliver took to the edge, perching himself above the isle with a perfect view of the fight below him. Mon-El and Mxyzptlk had each other by the throats but…Oliver didn’t even want to ask why they were dressed like the founding fathers, that was something to be filed away to deal with later.

“You’re a dead man.” Mon-El’s voice reached him.

By the looks of it, the pendant had the desire effect on the imp, the way the two were fighting meant that his powers were no longer at his disposal. Oliver stayed perched, waiting for the right time to make a move. While he didn’t fully trust Mon-El, staying hidden above the fight allowed him the element of surprise, Oliver would engage when Mon-El needed him too.

“Strike that.” Mxyzptlk spoke, raising his hand. “Reverse it.”

Oliver couldn’t see it, with Mxyzptlk’s back to him that wasn’t a surprise, but the blue explosion of energy when the imp crushed his fist made it pretty clear that he had managed to get the pendant back. Letting out a grunt of irritation, Oliver stayed the course, waiting for a clear time to strike. With a snap of his fingers, Mxyzptlk was at the stage, gun in his hand and with Mon-El suspended from the roof by a rope.

The moment Oliver saw the gun raise, he leapt into action.

It was a fair distance to cover, but Oliver knew he could do it. Kicking hard, The Green Arrow took to the air, his focus practically making time slow as he sailed through the air. It took less than a second for him to be sure that he would make it to the stage, and then his attention turned to his target. Mxyzptlk was so sure that he was alone that he was completely defenceless; his back was turned, he had no time to react.

With practiced precision, Oliver reached to his quiver. Before his feet touched the ground, three arrows had been let fly. Two were tipped in blue gemstone, sharpened to a vicious point and gleaming in the light of the stage lamps. Those two flew a straight course, and the sound of their impact perfectly accompanied Oliver's landing on the stage. The groan of agony Mxyzptlk let out as two 5th Dimensional arrows pierced through his shoulders gave Oliver a strange sense of satisfaction.

The gemstone the D.E.O. had collected was easy enough to turn into arrowheads, all it had needed was a high-powered laser-cutter, of which the D.E.O. owned several. It had taken no time at all to fashion the arrowheads, it was a skill Oliver had learnt well. There had only been enough of the rock to make three, with a few chunks left over, but three would hopefully be enough.

The third, and standard metal, arrow found it’s mark in the rope that held Mon-El, cutting though the material easily and allowing the Daxamite to drop to the floor. As Mon-El tore the remaining bindings from his body, Oliver stalked over to Mxyzptlk, teeth gritted and a low growl escaping him as he did. With an anger, and ignoring whatever crap the imp had started to speak, Oliver grabbed him by the scruff of his collar, dragging him to his feet.

“For a man from another universe, you have quite the bite.” The words of the imp reached Oliver's ears but not his brain.

Spinning him, Oliver shoved Mxyzptlk towards Mon-El, the Daxamite easily catching him with two hands on his lapels. Oliver was almost surprised at how little the two needed to communicate, though he knew full well the clarity that a fight could give to a person. Crossing a few steps, Oliver reached out, gripping the arrow buried in the imp’s left shoulder with his right hand and pressing hard. The scream that came from Mxyzptlk was so worth it, and the look Mon-El gave to Oliver bore something akin to approval.

“We know what it’ll take for you to leave.” Oliver growled, his voice matching the one he’d used at the start of his crusade as he pressed the arrow forward a little further, any more and it would pierce through the skin on the opposite side. “Say the word and I’ll stop.”

“Like I’ll…” Whatever else Mxyzptlk was about to say was cut off when Oliver pushed harder, his words turning to another cry of anguish.

“Say it!” Oliver snapped, wrenching the imp back and allowing him to fall to the floor. With a fluid move, he nocked the final arrow they had been able to make, taking aim at Mxyzptlk. “Or the next arrow goes through your heart.”

“You can take a beating, but something tells me even you can’t survive that.” Mon-El spoke, taking a stance at Oliver’s side.

When the imp remained silent, Oliver's patience waned. “You’ve got three seconds…two…one…”

“ _Stop_!”

In the blink of an eye, Mxyzptlk was obscured from view, and the red and blue of Supergirl’s uniform took over Oliver's vision. The sight of Kara simultaneously angered and soothed Oliver. Just her presence was enough for the red that had consumed him to fade away a little, a small clarity washing over him. At the same time, she had just put herself between a lethal payload and a psychopath, which couldn’t have been a worse decision. If Mxyzptlk’s powers worked on Kara, Oliver had little doubt that the 5th Dimensional arrow would affect her too. To what extent he probably would never know, but he wasn’t keen to find out.

“Kara.” Mon-El’s voice snapped Oliver's thoughts.

“Sweetheart!” Mxyzptlk spoke quickly, pain still evident in his voice. “These volatile maniacs tried to kill me.”

“Kara.” Oliver growled, his voice low and threatening. “Get out of my way.”

He wasn’t ready to back down, he’d made a decision and had committed to the plan. All he needed was a clear shot and Mxyzptlk was gone, one way or the other. Kara and her obnoxious moral compass had stalled the plan in its entirety, all she’d needed to do was be thirty seconds slower and it would have been over. Now the situation required improvisation, and Oliver didn’t like it at all.

“Oliver!” Kara suddenly snapped at him, taking a step in his direction. “Put the arrow down, right now.”

Her voice didn’t even come close to the threatening tones Oliver's had, but the resoluteness was there. Kara had the advantage and she knew it. So long as she was between the arrow and Mxyzptlk, Oliver wouldn’t take the shot. No matter how corrupt and blurred his morals, even Oliver had lines that he couldn’t cross. Even if he would be willing to take a shot at Kara, what then? He’d be out of 5th dimensional weapons and Mxyzptlk would undoubtedly become hell bent on revenge. 

Still though, he held his ground, unmoving, the arrow that had been set for Mxyzptlk now squarely aimed at Kara’s heart.

“Oliver, please.” Kara’s voice was softer now, her eyes pleading, anger fading away. “Don’t do this.”

Teeth gritted, a sigh of irritation leaving him, Oliver relented. With a slight roll of his eyes, Oliver lowered his bow, relaxing the drawstring and returning the arrow to his quiver. Kara hadn’t left him with many options, any move he would make she could counter in a second, and Oliver knew he wouldn’t be able to rely on Mon-El to distract her long enough for him to get a shot off. It was unmissable for him though, the way that Kara’s expression changed, almost immediately hardening towards him once the arrow had been stowed away.

Before Oliver could get a word out, the silence of the room was cut with another grunt of pain. There was no time to react, nothing to be done. By the time Kara had turned around, Mxyzptlk was on his feet, arrows gone from his shoulders and clearly back to full strength. All it took was for Oliver to blink and he found himself as Mon-El had been mere minutes ago, wrapped and chains and dangling from the ceiling above the stage. His quiver and bow were gone, hood and mask pulled away.

Mon-El was in the exact same predicament a few feet away from him, sporting a look of anger identical to Oliver's. Kara though, was still on the ground and stood beside the imp. That was when Oliver saw it, the 18th century duelling pistol (so maybe Thea had dragged him to see _Hamilton_ and he’d decided to do some reading afterwards) that the imp was holding, from the look he shared with Mon-El they both knew what the imp had in mind.

“It’ll be better for all of us once I’ve snuffed the two of you out.”

The gun raised, even with Kara in the room Oliver flinched, not seeing a way out, and then…

“I’ll marry you!”

_XXX_

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?!” Oliver burst through the door to Kara’s apartment the moment it opened.

Mxyzptlk had transported both him and Mon-El back to the D.E.O. the moment Kara had started to discuss the wedding, and Oliver couldn’t have been more thankful that he was yet to be sent off to some distant moon a billion lightyears away. For a vindictive psychopath Mxyzptlk was oddly generous. The second that Oliver had found his bearings he’d set right off for Kara’s apartment, not doubting that Mon-El would be mere moments behind him.

“Have you even thought about this? What this might mean for you?” Oliver continued, coming to a stop and turning to face Kara as he heard the door close.

“He was about to kill you, Oliver…you and Mon-El.” Kara shot back, her voice not matching Oliver's at all, the calmness there almost scary. “I’m not in love with him, but I had to save you.”

It was a good reason for her actions, Oliver fully understood that. In the brief time he’d spent thinking about it he’d realised that the options were limited, hell there hardly were any. If Kara had made a move then Mxyzptlk could have countered it, without a moment of hesitation and far quicker and more creatively than any of them could have processed. If it wasn’t for the imp’s obsession with showmanship then Oliver had no doubts that his neck could have been broken with a snap of fingers. Still though, that part of his mind, the part begging for him to not let Kara get tainted by the same darkness that he himself had been ruined by, was crying out for him to do something.

“I didn’t ask you to do that.” Oliver dropped his voice a little as he spoke.

“Well, I didn’t have a choice.” Kara answered, crossing her arms over her chest. “You were the one who told me that I needed to learn what it was like to do something when there’s no other options, and now I have.”

_Shit_.

Kara definitely had him backed into a corner on that one. It had been only a few hours ago when they’d had that augment, and here Kara was, already proving him wrong. It probably was the only real choice to make, until they could come up with a better option at the least. All his posturing about making the hard decisions and Kara had done it without blinking, to save him, someone who was practically a stranger to her. Yes, she had done it for Mon-El too, but there had been a hesitation, Kara had singled Oliver himself out, paused before mentioning the Daxamite.

“And you know what? He makes an excellent point.” Kara continued. “He has limitless power that he can use to help me fight for justice. We’ll make a great team.”

There was conviction in Kara’s voice, that much was true, but Oliver was almost a professional at reading people. Sure, there were those who made it by him, those with real conviction like Adrian Chase and Isabel Rochev. Kara though…she was almost a little too easy. It almost didn’t sound like she was trying to convince Oliver, maybe it was for her own benefit, or maybe it was for _someone_ else. Maybe Kara had been right, maybe there as another option.

“Then I’ll head back to my Earth.” Oliver spoke with a firmness in his voice, probing a little to see Kara’s reaction. “Once you’ve got Limitless Power on your side, you won’t need my help anymore.”

“I guess not.” Kara spoke with even less conviction this time, her eyes darting down to avoid Oliver's.

The reaction from Kara wasn’t significant, but it was enough. A fleeting look of disappointment in her eyes. She didn’t want him to leave, she still needed him. It was telling enough, Kara had something in mind, and Oliver had one option. Taking a few steps back towards the door, Oliver stopped at Kara’s side, looking across to her.

“Kara?” At the sound of his voice her eyes raised again, meeting Oliver's own. “I’m sure you know what you’re doing. I trust you.”

The happiness he saw there was enough for Oliver to be sure that he was right.

_XXX_

Night had fallen the next time Oliver found himself at Kara’s apartment. He’d gone back to the D.E.O. following their earlier conversation, fully intending to get in both a workout and a little research into the 5th Dimension. It had hardly been 30 minutes before Oliver crashed out, sat in a desk chair in front of a computer. He hadn’t even realised it, but with everything happening he had officially managed to go for almost two days without sleep. While it wasn’t something wholly alien to him (between Lian Yu and his double life Oliver had more than a little experience with sleepless nights), but his body craved the rest all the same.

By the time he had woken the sun had begun to set, crisp red-light bleeding in through the windows of the storage room Oliver had practically claimed as his own. That had been what had woken him, the cascade of light against his eyes as the clouds had shifted, and Oliver had been thankful for it. It didn’t take long to shrug off his slumber and swap out The Green Arrow suit for civilian clothes, as comfortable as it was Oliver really did hate spending too much time in that leather outfit.

After that, a few brief words with J’onn had confirmed that Kara was alive, unharmed, and still single. With that information calming him significantly, Oliver had set out for her apartment, the journey already etched into his memory. 

He’d hardly had to knock once when the door to _4A_ swung open. It was something of a relief as his eyes took in Kara, despite J’onn’s assurances Oliver had needed to see her himself, just to be sure. Kara, though, seemed a little unreadable as Oliver took her in. There was a neutrality on her face that Oliver was far from used to seeing but, he supposed, there was good reason for it. Even if Oliver had eventually relented and trusted her to do the right thing, he had still gone to extreme lengths to show the exact opposite just before.

“Hi.” It almost seemed dumb to say out aloud, but he really wasn’t sure where else to start. When Kara didn’t reply he continued. “Mind if I come in?”

Again, she stayed silent, simply stepping to the side to allow Oliver access to the apartment. It felt a little different to the last two times Oliver had been there. The usually bright space was more muted, the lights low and the room only illuminated by a few soft lamps scattered here and there. The flowers that had been left by Mxyzptlk had all faded away, and the room felt a lot more like Kara without them. The final thing he noted was the kitchen island or, more specifically, the glass of wine and pint of half-finished ice-cream that sat upon it.

“J’onn told me what happened.” Oliver began, turning to face Kara, leaning back against the island as he did. “What you did was…you found another way.”

The faint trace of a smile that teased his lips was one Oliver could not repress, Kara really had impressed him. Even with all that conviction, everything he had been so certain about when he had aimed that arrow at Mxyzptlk’s heart, there in that moment, looking into her eyes, Oliver knew she had been right. There _was_ another way. Maybe there wouldn’t always be for him, but Kara had done it, effortlessly and without compromise. Super really didn’t cover it.

“That mean you’re ready to admit you were wrong?” Kara teased, moving closer to Oliver, a smile on her lips.

“It means…” Oliver chuckled a little as he trailed off, his smile growing to match Kara’s. “I’m willing to admit that I wasn’t completely right.”

There was a moment then, when the whole world seemed to fall away as they shared a laugh, like a silence had claimed everything that wasn’t them. Eyes drawn to lips, Oliver almost mesmerised as he watched that laugh fall from her, the curve her lips made, the way her tongue poked out a little to wet them and caused the dim light of the apartment to practically make them glow, the all too captivating sound she made. Just as Kara was drawn to his own.

“I should have trusted you.” Oliver spoke once the silence had settled back in. “It’s something I’ve been working on, and I’m…I’m not always good at it, but you’ve given me some pretty good reasons to trust you. So…” Sucking in a deep breath, Oliver finished. “I’m sorry, for not backing your play from the start.”

The smile he got in return was so warm that Oliver could practically feel some of that sunlight Kara absorbed.

“But I should probably head back to the D.E.O., I could do with a decent night of rest.” Oliver bowed his head a little, wetting his lips slightly as he made a move for the door.

Before he could get anywhere, Kara took a sidestep to stop him. “I think…maybe I should apologise too.” As soon as Oliver opened his mouth to protest Kara continued. “That first night, I told you I was being selfish for not trying to understand you, and I didn’t try at all this time around.”

“Kara, you…”

“So, I was thinking.” She interrupted him. “I’ve got a bottle of wine and half a pint of mint-chip, you should stay and we can both… _try_.”

There really was something about her, something that Diggle had noticed long before Oliver had been able to. With just two days work, Kara had managed to change him, make him realise that things maybe didn’t always have to be quite so black and white. That maybe, just maybe, there might be room for a little colour in his life if he let it. Diggle had been right, Kara was sunshine, and Oliver didn’t have to look to hard to realise that spending some time in the sunlight wasn’t going to be such a bad thing. After all, darkness never did last forever.

 


	6. Chapter 6

“Wait. So, you built a prison on the island you were marooned on for five years?” Kara asked, a little stunned. “Isn’t that a little…”

“Ironic? Masochistic? Totally insane?” Oliver smirked as he cut over her. “John said something similar.”

The mint-chip had long since been eaten, the empty carton now sat on the coffee table with a single spoon resting in it. A second bottle of wine had joined the first and now that was almost empty too, even though Oliver was only on his second glass. Unsurprisingly, Kara had drunk more of it than he had, being as the alcohol didn’t affect her she was far less concerned about her pace. Oliver was a lot more reserved about it, taking much slower and less frequent sips, Kara had to reason that he was cautious about consuming alcohol.

Kara wasn’t too sure of how long it had been since Oliver had arrived at her apartment. After he’d agreed to stay and talk they hadn’t moved from the sofa, just lost in the enjoyment of the other’s company. Oliver seemed a little more relaxed than she had ever seen him before though, the perpetual tenseness in his shoulders was gone and his lips hardly seemed to falter from a smile, and Kara couldn’t help but to be a little proud of herself for it. 

Ever since they’d started to fall into more comfortable conversation about their lives, Kara had been trying to poke a little into the ‘ _real_ ’ Oliver Queen. Perhaps it was the journalist in her or perhaps it was just because she wanted to get to know him better, Kara wasn’t sure, but regardless she had been doing her best to avoid coming off as a little too blunt. There’d been some openness from Oliver though, not as much as Kara would have liked, but she could appreciate his need for secrets.

Most of what he’d actually spoken about was after he had become The Green Arrow, or ‘The Hood’ as he had first been called on his return home. He had told her about training Barry, and Kara couldn’t help but to laugh along with him as he’d regaled her with the story of shooting the speedster (it had made Kara even more thankful for having impenetrable skin). He’d told her about his friends; Roy Harper, Laurel Lance, Tommy Merlyn, and so many of the people who had given their all to his crusade.

Despite the almost light air around them, the conversation had hit Kara hard. It had been a little strange for her, seeing and hearing him open up the way he did, the usually impregnable stone walls of The Green Arrow had dropped, and Kara had managed to have a conversation with _Oliver Queen_ instead. She had to wonder how many other people had seen this side of him, the man beneath all the anger and bravado. That man, Kara had decided, was one she would definitely like to get to know better.

“As prisons go that’s…secure.” Kara smiled a little, still somewhat thrown by the revelation. “It seems like the D.E.O. has at least one breakout a year.”

“Well, I am yet to have that problem.” Oliver smiled back. “Not that anyone could get off the island if they escaped, but that’s the point, right?”

“I haven’t meet a prison that can actually hold its inmates.” Kara answered, thinking about all the trouble she’d had since becoming Supergirl. “I mean, half the bad guys I fought last year were escapees from Fort Rozz.”

“Military base?” Oliver questioned before taking a sip from his wine, his eyes not leaving Kara as he did.

“Kryptonian Supermax.” Her response went unanswered by Oliver, and Kara could practically see the gears grinding behind his eyes as he mentally sorted the new information. “And most of the criminals who escaped wanted me dead because my mom sent them there. Small universe, huh?”

It had become something Kara almost had to laugh about. The ridiculousness of it all. Fort Rozz had been home to the worst of the galaxy’s worst, escaped the Phantom Zone because of her, and unleashed a frightening number of criminals onto Earth, but just to top it off they had all wanted to kill her because of what her mother had done. The odds of it all were astronomically low, she’d actually gotten bored one particularly crime free afternoon and done the math, but still it happened. What else was she to do but try and laugh it away? It wasn’t as though getting angry about it would make a difference.

When she met Oliver's eyes though, she could see something in them. Not pity as she’d almost expected, but understanding. It wasn’t a reaction she was accustomed to, there was no one who could have known that pain. Yet, there was Oliver Queen, those captivating blue eyes Kara just couldn’t look away from betraying empathy that was foreign to her. How could he understand?

“I know a little about having to deal with the sins of your parents.” Oliver spoke as if reading her mind. He swallowed then, taking a breath before continuing. “It feels like this weight, constantly pushing down on you and no matter how hard you try, you can never get used to carrying it. You can work out until every muscle in your body aches, repent to everyone they wronged, fight every single one of those demons they left behind but it…it’s never enough.”

And there it was. Everything Kara had hoped for, because Oliver _did_ understand. She’d never been able to fully realise it herself, to put into words exactly what is was she felt after learning the truth about her parents. Her mother and her father had both kept secrets, done things that just didn’t match up with the people she had known them to be, and Kara had never thought anyone else would really understand that. Oliver had done it, like it was any other day he’d been able to explain her own feeling to her better than she had ever been able to realise.

“Oliver, I…” There were no words for her to use, no real response that she could give.

“You know, Barry told me a little about you, how you ended up on Earth.” Oliver spoke, his eyes dropping from Kara’s for a moment as the index finger of his left hand began to tap against his leg. “I’ve seen a lot, doing what we do. A lot of pain. A lot of suffering. But I… I never got a chance to tell you…to say sorry.”

When Oliver met her eyes again there was something else in them. Gone was the understanding and empathy, replaced by true heartbreak. It hadn’t escaped Kara’s notice that Oliver avoided talking about his family, and after what had been said she could only draw one conclusion. Even with that, the look in his eyes told her that he knew about Krypton, because those eyes were just how she saw her own in the mirror some mornings.

She couldn’t answer him. There was nothing that could even come close to expressing the cacophony of thoughts in her mind. The sadness, the frustration, the longing for a home that could never be satisfied, the connection she had suddenly discovered with Oliver Queen. Kara’s mind was never an easy place to be, but then, sat on a couch just across from a man who almost seemed to understand her, things seemed to much more complicated, yet infinitely simpler at the same time.

“Kara, you…you’re incredible. To have gone through what you did and to come out so…optimistic, so untainted by it all. I don’t think I could have done it.” Oliver continued.

It was then Kara realised how close the two had moved. It was both that had done it. They’d started the evening on opposite ends of the couch, using the armrests and cushions for back support, and now they’d all-but met in the middle. Bodies angled towards each other, Kara’s legs crossed under her, two sets of blue eyes glistening in the lamplight as they looked _into_ each other.

There was nothing left to be said. Kara’s eyes dropped from Oliver's, inching down to his lips, her mind suddenly equally as focused on them as it had been his eyes a moment ago. The way Oliver moved a little closer told her that he had done the same. They were both, in that moment, connected, in a way neither had felt before. Their minds not questioning the way their bodies decided to gravitate towards each other, inching a little closer.

Kara’s eyes drifted shut then, her own Oliver's lips slowly closing the remaining few inches between them. She could practically feel the heat coming off him, the electricity that sparked between them. A moment that she had too easily lost herself in and then…

_Sirens._

They both pulled apart, the sound piercing into the room through the open balcony doors. Kara didn’t say a word as she super-sped her way into her uniform and took to the skies, after all, the mission came first, right?

_XXX_

They didn’t talk about it after that, Oliver had made sure of it. The week that had followed had been completely void of even a hint of the events of that night. He’d known full well that Kara wouldn’t be the one to broach the subject, she was far too nervous about it, and Oliver had no intentions of being the one to do so. He couldn’t afford the distraction, not now, not ever. He had allowed himself to drift a little too close, to open himself up a little too much to a woman from a planet he would never even see. What had nearly happened with Kara was something Oliver needed to make sure would never happened again.

Yet, he’d enjoyed the evening. Spending time with Kara, learning about her, allowing himself to let someone else in, it had been oddly liberating. Even with everything they had talked about, he had felt more like Oliver Queen then than he had in a long time. Maybe even the first time in 10 years. Kara was incredible, it hadn’t been a lie. When he really thought about it Kara made sense. When he had been though his crucible, he had come out ruthless and angry at the world. Kara had experience heartbreak on a scale Oliver could never fully understand but she dealt with it by seeing the best in everything and everyone, the naivety and gratuitous happiness made a lot of sense when he really thought about it.

Still he couldn’t let himself get any closer to her. Kara had said it herself, they _were_ from different worlds, quite literally. So, he had done what he always did; thrown himself into his work. For a whole week Oliver had worked in tandem with the D.E.O., pouring over the Cadmus casefiles, looking into everything they could. The Green Arrow had hit the streets to interrogate known sympathisers, Oliver and Winn had searched databases, satellites, and anything else they could think of.

Cadmus was an interesting opponent if nothing else. It had long been one of Oliver's beliefs that large groups of people were incapable of keeping secrets, it was the reason he was so protective of his identity, and yet Cadmus seemed to have resources everywhere but no weak links. Lillian Luthor was the one promising lead they had, and only because of her daughter Lena. The moment Oliver had brought that one up Kara had shot him down, stating that Lena was nothing to do with the group, especially after she had been falsely accused of aiding Cadmus a few weeks prior.

Even with that, Oliver still wanted to question her. He had managed to narrow down a handful of locations that were likely to be Cadmus safehouses, and a little light recon had helped to confirm his suspicions, but there were still a lot of locations and potential allies of the organisation that he couldn’t fully eliminate or confirm. Though, Kara was the one holding him back. She hadn’t said much to him, in fact they had hardly spoken the last seven days, but they had more or less patched things up, and he wasn’t too keen to have to apologise to her again any time soon.

Then again, he had posed the question to Winn as they had been working, Kara had asked for his help to track down her adoptive-father, surely, she would forgive him easily enough if he got results?

“I don’t know, man.” Winn answered, looking up from his computer. “Kara remembers, Kryptonian brain, you know? Pretty much means she’ll never forget a thing. If you go after Lena and it doesn’t pan out, you…you might be screwed.”

Drumming his fingers again the desk, Oliver pondered the answer. They were beginning to run out of leads, there was only so much more information to pour over and after that no amount of work would change anything. What they really needed was a new injection of facts, someone who could give them enough of a push in the right direction that they might be able to tick a few more things off the list.

With a heavy sigh Oliver rose to his feet, mind made up and a plan in place. The look Winn gave him was an understanding, if a fearful one. The I.T. genius had clearly recognised the look of determination in Oliver's eyes and deduced his plan, even if Oliver wasn’t wholly convinced of it himself.

Donning the Green Arrow suit once more, Oliver took to the streets. The D.E.O. had loaned him a bike identical to the one he owned back on his Earth, and it had made navigation a lot easier. Over the last week he had come to know National City fairly well, stalking xenophobes from rooftops had certainly aided with that one. From what they knew of her, Lena Luthor would be working late, and the L-Corp building wasn’t hard to find at all. Much as Queen Consolidated had been, the building stood near central to the city, the emblem proudly emblazoned across the top few floors for all too see.

With a few well-placed arrows, Oliver was at the balcony. The glass walls confirmed their suspicious, and a few words to Winn cut the power to the building. Stepping through the partly opened door, The Green Arrow stood tall.

“Lena Luthor.” The voice modulator warbled. “I need your help.”

_XXX_

Kara didn’t get the alert until a little too late. She hadn’t been looking at her phone, too busy working late on an article for Snapper and trying to avoid Oliver. Things had been…strained between them since the kiss that had almost been. Okay, so maybe strained was an understatement but still. There had been a silent realisation between the two of them; their lives were complicated enough, they couldn’t let things get any more difficult. But then, Kara’s subconscious had argued, why did being around Oliver that night feel so simple?

Either way, it had gone undiscussed. Oliver hadn’t even attempted to bring it up, and his reluctance intimidated Kara enough to not say anything at all. She’d just thrown herself into her work, just as she knew Oliver had done, and they had managed to find a vague semblance of normality.

Her need to be distracted was what Kara blamed for missing the alert on her phone. After thwarting two separate robberies at the building, Kara had convinced Winn to set her up to be notified if anything suspicious happened at the L-Corp building. As soon as the security team there registered something, the bug Winn placed in their server would send out an alert to Kara’s phone. She’d finally pulled it out of her bag when her eyes had begun to strain from all the reading, and the flashing bubble on the lock screen had made her eyes go wide:

**_L-Corp_ **

_Security alert. 15mins ago_

She hadn’t hesitated after that. Leaving everything at her desk and rushing to the roof to head for L-Corp, one of the few perks of working late was that she didn’t need to worry about being seen, there was only a skeleton crew on staff. It had taken less than a minute for Supergirl to arrive at the balcony to Lena’s office, and when she did, it was an odd sight.

There had been nothing on the approach. None of her powers had picked up anything out of the ordinary. The same was true at Lena’s office, the raven-haired C.E.O. sat on her couch looking over some files. Gracefully landing on the balcony, Supergirl stepped through the open door, eyes alert for trouble.

“Lena?” Supergirl called her name.

“Supergirl.” Lena looked up from her paperwork with a smile. “If you’re looking for your friend on the hood he’s already left.”

_Wait what?_

“Ol…” Kara caught herself. “Green Arrow was here?”

She had told him, out and out the moment he had mentioned it, that Lena Luthor was _off limits_. Kara knew that her friend wasn’t involved with Cadmus, that Lena had already been cleared of any involvement by both the media and the D.E.O., and that (despite their resolution) Kara really didn’t want Oliver interrogating Lena.

“ _Green Arrow_?” Lena almost scoffed. “That’s what he’s called? A little on the nose, wouldn’t you say?”

“You’re alright?” Supergirl asked, crossing the room in a few strides. “He didn’t hurt you?”

Lena practically recoiled at that, throwing an incredulous look at Supergirl. “Hurt me? Don’t be ridiculous, save for giving me the shock of my life he hardly came close to me.”

“Then…what did he want?”

“My help, apparently.” Lena gestured to the array of files on her desk at that, and it was only then that Kara realised it was all information related to Cadmus. Suspected weapons caches, potential sympathisers, suspicious locations, all the things Oliver had been working on for the last week. “He said that I might be able to give them an ‘inside perspective’. After all, if anyone could figure out what mother is up to it’s me.”

“I’m sorry, Lena.” Supergirl took a final, tentative step towards her friend. “I told him to leave you out of this, that you’ve already been dragged though…”

“Supergirl, it’s fine.” Lena cut over her, causing the hero to stand a little straighter with surprise. “If I can help track down Cadmus and my mother then it’s my duty to do so.”

So, Lena was okay with it. Kara had to take that as a consolation. Oliver had still ignored her wishes though, ignored her outright demand that Lena be left alone. Though, she mused, that wasn’t exactly how it had been phrased. What Kara had actually told Oliver was that he wasn’t to “ _interrogate Lena like some common criminal_ ”, which he technically hadn’t done. Undoubtedly, he’d use that in his defence.

She was still going to be having a serious discussion with Oliver the next time she saw him.

_XXX_

It was late morning when Kara arrived at the D.E.O., Monday had finally rolled around meaning that Oliver had only a few more days before the time Thea had managed to buy him with City Hall would be up. He wanted nothing more than for them to have some success in locating Jeremiah Danvers before then, at the very least Oliver had managed to give the search a little more direction though, and that would be consolation enough if they couldn’t make any more progress…or so he hoped.

Despite it all, Oliver didn’t want to disappoint Kara again. He knew she would never actually say it, Kara would just reassure Oliver that he’d done all he could do, that he’d managed to help them enough with what little time they had to work with. As much as her ability to see the best on people was annoyingly predictable, Oliver had to admit that it was somewhat comforting. That said, unless they made a significant discovery in the next few days, Oliver knew he would be leaving Earth-38 having failed Kara and her family.

Footsteps behind him broke his thoughts and Oliver drifted back into the world around him. Oliver didn’t have to turn around to know that it was Kara approaching him; the pattern of the footfalls was one he recognised immediately, it was a strange skill, being able to identify a person by the movements they made but one he had nonetheless. There were a few words exchanged behind him, and Oliver’s attention was kept to the monitor before him, checking on the leads that he had been given by Lena Luthor.

He barely got a chance to tune into Kara’s conversation with J’onn when…

“Holy Cadmus cream egg!”

_Seriously?_

Oliver turned to Winn, jumping from his own seat and heading to the other man, his eyes briefly meeting Kara’s as she did the same.

“Cadmus? You’ve found something?” Kara asked, standing at Winn’s other side, looking up at the large central monitor.

“This isn’t one of the locations we were watching.” Oliver thought aloud as he looked at the images on Winn’s computer. “Where is this?”

“Remote warehouse just on the edge of the city limits.” Win answered, pulling up satellite surveillance. “Looks like a convoy coming out of one of the suspected weapons storage facilities.”

Something began pulling at Oliver's subconscious as he read over the information on the screens. He couldn’t tell what it was, his keen skills were alight but it evaded him still. It was almost too obvious, too intentional, like they were being taunted.

“Tell Alex to set up a back-up team.” Kara spoke, turning away from the two men.

“You’re not going alone.” Oliver wheeled around to face her, fully intending on joining Kara himself.

“I’ll take J’onn, we’ll get there faster.”

With that she was gone, disappearing into the bustle of agents as she headed for the exit. A groan of irritation escaping his lips, Oliver turned back to the monitor bank, forced to watch as Supergirl and _Martian Manhunter_ (he still thought that was a weird code name) headed for the convoy. The impatience was almost painful, he wasn’t used to being so useless during a mission, and Oliver had to wonder if he was feeling the same things Felicity felt every time he and the team were out on the field. 

“She’ll be fine.” Winn spoke, pulling Oliver's attention. “Kara’s like invulnerable, nothing can stop her.”

Oliver didn’t reply, simply watching the GPS dots zoom across the digital map in front of him. Even when Kara and J’onn arrived at an old industrial testing ground all he was able to do as listen to their comms and try and figure out what was happening. The gunfire made him flinch a little, until Oliver reminded himself that Kara’s skin was bulletproof. In silence he and Winn watched the feed, as the two blips that represented J’onn and Kara zipped around, until finally they stopped, side-by-side.

“O _h my God_.” Kara’s voice came through over the comms.

“Kara?” Oliver called, straightening up in his chair even more. “What is it?”

“It’s…we found Jeremiah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, one more chapter down. I’m currently debating how long Oliver should hang around Earth-38 for to assist Kara and the gang. For sure he’s seeing out the events of ‘Homecoming’ but I’m now debating whether he should stay for ‘Exodus’ too, so lemme know if you guys want us to spend some more time on 38 before heading back over to Earth-1.  
> Beyond that, please drop a review if you have anything at all to say, hearing from you guys really does motivate me to keep writing.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

“They told me, but I didn’t believe it.”

Oliver watched in silence, arms crossed over his chest as Alex Danvers ran into her father's’ arms. It was the most emotion other than anger that Oliver had seen her express since his arrival on Earth-38, and the sight couldn’t help but melt his icy exterior a little as he watched the scene unfold. The crowd was a shield as Oliver watched the agents applaud, the Danvers sisters helping their father up towards the infirmary, and the eventual dispersal of the crowd.

It still wasn’t sitting right with him. In his experience things like that didn’t just happen, almost every time someone had ‘come back from the dead’ it had been bad news for everyone involved. Sara had been…confusing, Slade had been hell-bent on killing him, and Earth-2’s Laurel had been a blow to his heart that Oliver still recoiled from when he thought about it. So, of course, he was glad that the sisters had their father back, he was thrilled for them, but his 10 years of training and experience had taught him to _always_ look a gift horse in the mouth.

Everything about the rescue had him on edge. For the better part of 16 years Cadmus had kept Jeremiah Danvers, their single most valuable asset, invisible, had taken every precaution in moving him and had only inadvertently (or so Supergirl and the D.E.O. were supposed to believe) revealed his existence to Supergirl during her capture. Then, for such a clumsy mistake to be made after so much meticulous planning was just…too obvious to be ignored. The warehouse they had moved Jeremiah from hadn’t even been one they were monitoring, and Oliver’s keen instincts knew something was wrong.

Which left Oliver with two options, at least for the time being. Either Lena Luthor had deliberately pointed them in the wrong direction, had tried to keep him from looking too closely at that warehouse, or Cadmus had let Jeremiah go intentionally. The first option wasn’t all that likely, Oliver hadn’t picked up anything during his interactions with Lena to suggest she had been lying to him and Kara’s testimony made the C.E.O. even less likely to be guilty in his book. The second was…frightening because there could have been any number of motivations behind a tactical play like that.

With a heavy sigh, Oliver took to the stairs, following the route to the infirmary he had seen Kara and the others take. He didn’t want to air his suspicious yet, not in front of everyone. Kara was the obvious choice to speak to, she had asked for his help and clearly trusted his opinions, but family was a blind spot, Oliver knew that better than most. J’onn was the next logical choice, if he could rationally present his suspicions then the Martian could easily confirm them with a little mind reading. Failing those…Oliver would go it alone, it wouldn’t be the first time.

“…rotting out there in the Amazon, but…I came to at Cadmus.” Oliver heard Jeremiah speak, and paused in his tracks lingering outside the room to listen to the conversation. “They saved me, so I could save Henshaw. They forced me to keep him alive, to enhance him. Physically turn him into the monster he was beneath.” That would be the real Hank Henshaw, Oliver realised. Kara had managed to convince J’onn to give him access to the D.E.O. casefile log and Oliver had been doing plenty of research along with his investigation over the last week. “It is strange…seeing you in Henshaw’s skin.”

Oliver rounded the corner at that, looking through into the room to observe as well as listen.

“I hope I’ve put it to good use.” J’onn responded.

“Better than he ever did.” Jeremiah grinned in response, and something about it picked away at Oliver's intuition.

“But what happened after that?” Kara asked, still clad in the Supergirl uniform. “You were gone for such a long time.”

“I guess I did too good a job enhancing Henshaw, ‘cause Cadmus wanted me to stick around, help ‘em with other projects. In the beginning, I tried to escape again and again. Bet, well, let’s just say they didn’t appreciate that very much.”

There was something in Jeremiah’s words that continued to pull at Oliver. He couldn’t quite place it. Perhaps it was the way it was said, or perhaps it was the way the story seemed to be exactly what was needed to placate the Danvers sisters. The rescue was still tugging away at him, and Oliver couldn’t help but to allow Jeremiah’s latest testimony pile on to the doubt he was feeling.

“Oh, dad, I…”

“It’s okay, by…by working with them I was helping to keep you and your sister safe.”

That was one of the few things that had happened Oliver was inclined to believe. Family was family, and no matter what he struggled to see how any father could betray his own children n so wholly. Sure, both Oliver's parents had kept secrets and left behind demons, but that had been done with the best of intentions of their part, regardless of whether or not it those decisions had actually been the right call.

Swallowing heavily, Oliver took the final few steps and pushed through the door into the room, having heard enough and wanting to do a little prodding himself. The quartet turned to look at him as he entered, and Oliver crossed the infirmary towards them with slow, calculated strides. His eyes flicked from Kara to Alex, and finally to Jeremiah. Stopping at the foot of the bed on Kara’s left side, Oliver scanned his eyes over the man in question, eyeing each of the wounds carefully and not being able to stop himself from feeling a small modicum of sympathy for the torture Jeremiah clearly had been through.

“Oliver Queen, of Earth-1.” Jeremiah smiled at him. “J’onn tells me I’ve got you to thank for reuniting me with my girls.”

“I did what I could,” Oliver answered. “Just glad to have been able to make a difference here.”

“Well, I am so lucky that you found me.” Jeremiah began before turning to his daughters. “I am so lucky to be back with you two.”

Oliver said nothing, not wanting to voice his doubts when the odds for support were clearly not in his favour. Alex and Kara were too emotionally compromised, and from what he understood J’onn owed his life to Jeremiah. He needed to wait, bide a little time to investigate before he made any accusations. He could, however, test the waters, make a suggestion and see how Jeremiah reacted.

“Luck is certainly one word for it.” Oliver spoke clearly.

“What’d you mean?” J’onn rose to his feet, meeting Oliver's eyes.

“The warehouse Cadmus moved from today wasn’t one we were investigating, not even close, yet we got an alert that they were moving equipment.”

“So?” Kara spoke up. “We caught them red-handed.”

“Maybe not,” Oliver countered. “This might have been intentional, maybe Cadmus are trying to distract us from some other scheme.”

“No, Oliver…” Kara tried.

“No, Oliver might be right. You need to keep your guard up.” Jeremiah cut over her. “Because Cadmus does have a weapon.”

“What is it?” Oliver questioned, arms crossing over his chest as he did.

“A nuclear fusion bomb. They’re going to destroy National City and blame it on hostile aliens.”

It seemed plausible, Oliver would relent to that much. It would be a reasonable distraction on Cadmus’s part, to orchestrate Jeremiah’s “ _rescue_ ” in order to distract the D.E.O. from a plan of that magnitude. Then again, given the meticulous planning on the part of the group so far, it seemed unlikely that they’d make a mistake to the degree of allowing Jeremiah to know the plan existed. Oliver had hardly spent any time at all in the presence of Jeremiah Danvers, yet already his suspicions were growing, and he hated the feeling it brought to him.

“How did Cadmus get their hands on it?” Kara asked.

“Well, they didn’t steal it. They built it.” Jeremiah answered, a look crossing his face Oliver couldn’t quite read. “Using the radiation they mined from your heat vision when you were in their custody.”

Oliver had read that file a few nights ago. Anything pertaining to Cadmus had been at the top of his list and just reading that they’d managed to capture Supergirl had piqued his interest. The information that her powers had been burnt out, and that something called Nth metal had been able to hold her, had been an education. From the look on Kara’s face though, she was already blaming herself, and that was something Oliver could most definitely understand.

“Okay, so we track the bomb down.” Oliver spoke up, doing his best to snap Kara out of the black hole she was about to fall into. “Something that big and that powerful is going to itself away eventually; radiation, heat spikes, something. Even if I have to hood up and put an arrow through every xenophobic lowlife in this city, we will find it.”

At that Jeremiah’s gaze turned to Oliver, an almost irritated look on his face.

“I take it that means you’ll be sticking around for a while.”

“I will.” Oliver turned at that, waiting for the blonde beside him to meet his eyes before continuing. “For as long as Kara needs me.”

_XXX_

The more Oliver watched the Danvers family, the more he hated the growing suspicion. The reunion between Jeremiah and his wife had been practically heart-warming to watch, but all it did to Oliver was force him to double down on his theories. The look Jeremiah had given him on learning that he would be staying on Kara’s Earth even after the rescue, coupled with everything else that had come up in the short time since was pooling towards an outcome Oliver was not looking forward to. Knowing what they had all been through Oliver really did want nothing more for the Danvers than for them to have a happy reunion, which was the reason he was really hating his inability to ‘switch off’ from his suspicion.

He had time, to make a play, to keep a close eye on Jeremiah Danvers, to protect Kara.

Then, she had invited him to a family dinner. Insisted that he be there with them because it was because of him that they had been lucky enough to find Jeremiah. It bothered him, the seeming insistence on normality at a time of potential crisis. Assuming Jeremiah’s claims about a nuclear weapon were true, then the D.E.O.’s main operatives taking a night off to dine seemed more than a little counterproductive. If Winn’s scans of the city turned something up then they would all be better off to be at the D.E.O. so that they could mobilise quickly.

Yet Oliver once again found himself outside the door to apartment _4A_. He’d agreed to Kara’s request because he’d needed to, it gave him a chance to observe Jeremiah a little more closely and maybe get the chance to ask a few of the right questions. Or that was what Oliver had been telling himself as he rode his D.E.O. issue bike over to Kara’s building. In reality, and what his subconscious was screaming at him, Oliver had agreed to dinner because it was Kara, and how could he say no to her? The brilliant smile and practically glistening eyes, all with that pleading voice that had told him she _really did_ want him there, that she wasn’t just being polite.

So, he knocked on the door, and in the pause straightened his jacket a little. He hadn’t been too sure of the dress code for the night and hadn’t wanted to ask Kara. Between his upbringing as a Queen and the formality assigned to his job as the mayor, Oliver had opted for something a little more…respectable. He was clad in his favourite deep grey Armani, jacket unbuttoned, with a crisp white shirt, undone at the collar, underneath and finished with a pair of shiny black oxfords. Reflexing rolling his left wrist, Oliver watched the door swing open.

He was _definitely_ overdressed.

He shouldn’t have agreed to dinner. Oliver could tell it almost immediately. Just looking at Kara caused the thoughts of the events a few nights prior fill his mind once again, and he almost couldn’t suppress them quickly enough. He did, however, manage to catch the look on Kara’s face, staring at him appreciatively, practically frozen in place as she did.

“Ol…Oliver,” Kara managed after a few moments. “You look…”

“Overdressed?” Oliver cut over her.

With a slight shake of her head, Kara continued. “You look amazing.”

“So do you.” Oliver answered immediately, his mouth running ahead of his rationality for a change, and he briefly realised how Felicity felt in these situations.

It was an automatic answer, but an honest one nonetheless. Kara was different, that was blindingly obvious to anyone. She was always happy, ridiculously so, but there was a lightness that Oliver hadn’t seen in her before. Even with all that happiness, there was a weight behind her eyes, one that Oliver recognised all too well, he saw it in himself, in Barry, in so many of their friends. In that moment, stood in the doorway to her apartment and looking into those brilliant blue eyes, Kara didn’t just look happy, she looked free.

And to Oliver, that made her look even more beautiful.

The look on Kara’s face told him all too clearly that she hadn’t expected either the quickness or honesty of his reply. After the events of the previous week, the kiss that had almost been, Oliver had sworn to avoid any hint of that level of closeness and Kara had obviously noticed. It shouldn’t’ have been a shock to him that she wouldn’t have been prepared for such a U-turn.

“I…uh…” Kara stumbled for a moment. “Thank you, Oliver.”

The smile that crossed Kara’s lips at that immediately spread to Oliver's own.

“Come on in.” Kara beamed at him, stepping to the side so Oliver could enter the apartment.

In that moment, the struggles of the last week; the tension, the avoidance, the hiding, it all seemed to dissipate. Kara became again what she was when Oliver arrived on Earth-38, an untapped reservoir of hope and happiness, someone Oliver trusted immediately and wholly, someone he could actually be himself around.

Oliver had to deal himself a mental slap to snap himself out of that particular trail of thought. He couldn’t…he wouldn’t allow himself to let things with Kara develop any further. The woman was practically infectious with unending optimism and sunny personality, and it was a weakness Oliver couldn’t afford. National City and Star City were different worlds in more than just the literal sense. Kara’s happy-go-lucky attitude and lifestyle just wouldn’t blend with Oliver's world, if his enemies were to know about Kara, it would be all too easy to exploit her naivety and trust for some sick purpose. As indestructible as Kara was, Oliver knew there would be people who would figure out how to exploit her.

Pushing all those thoughts down Oliver stepped past Kara and into her apartment, almost glad that he already knew it, as it cut away at some of the tension he was feeling. Jeremiah was at the kitchen island, preparing something with a woman he presumed was Kara’s adoptive mother, and Alex was stood in the living space with someone Oliver didn’t recognise at all. Oliver took in the room carefully as he walked, judging and analysing the people within it. He couldn’t switch off from his instincts at the best of times, but with his concerns of Jeremiah Oliver was on extra high alert.

They all seemed happy, smiles and laughter all around that set far apart from the expectations Oliver had set for those people. It was nothing short of a miracle to him that Alex was smiling, the woman had been so cold and stubborn (far more like himself than Oliver was willing to openly admit) that he had almost thought it impossible to see her smile. The irony of that thought was completely lost on him.

Then Kara was at his side. Her arm wrapping around his and pulling him across towards where her parents stood with enough strength that Oliver knew better than to argue. As the two came to a stop before the island, two sets of eyes fixed on them.

“Eliza,” Kara began with a smile. “This is Oliver Queen, he helped us bring Jeremiah home.”

The older woman offered Oliver a warm smile, one that almost reminded him of his own mother, and began to walk around the island. Eliza Danvers looked to be a kind woman, she fit the most utopian image of a mother that Oliver could think of.

“Thank you,” Eliza smiled, coming to a stop in front Oliver and Kara. “Our family owes you so much, Mr Queen.”

“It’s Oliver, please.” He smiled back. “And you don’t owe me a thing, Mrs Danvers, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Kara.”

Once again he surprised himself with the ease at which the words slipped through his lips. Even to his own ears, it seemed strange that he focused on Kara, it wasn’t the first time that his usual rhetoric about protecting and helping people had been centred on the blonde at his side.

It was John’s fault.

That was what Oliver chose to tell himself. If it hadn’t been for Digg’s parting ‘ _wisdom_ ’ about Kara and the good she might do for him, Oliver was almost certain that he wouldn’t have been falling down that particular rabbit hole.

Pushing those thoughts down once again, Oliver noticed the wide smile that Eliza was giving him. He didn’t miss the way her eyes moved between himself and Kara, and he recognised that smile too, it was one his own mother had given him once or twice when he and Laurel had first started dating.

He didn’t have the time to dwell on it, however. Kara tugged lightly on Oliver's arm, pulling his attention away from her parents. Oliver was a little thankful that he already knew Kara’s apartment, the familiar surroundings made him slightly more comfortable when he was faced with Alex and another woman he didn’t recognise. Given his earlier interactions with Alex, Oliver had expected to see more hostility in her but she looked as happy as she had done back at the D.E.O. when they had first rescued Jeremiah.

“So, you already know Alex.” Kara beamed at him. “And this is Maggie Sawyer, her girlfriend. Maggie this is Oliver Queen.”

“Good to meet you.” Oliver smiled, shaking the hand that was offered to him.

“Likewise, Ollie.”

It was almost a struggle for him not to react to that. _No one_ called him Ollie. Since his return from the island only Tommy and Laurel had continued to use that name, and only because they still saw something of who he was before in him. _Ollie_ was the boy who died in the fires of Lian Yu, not the man who had returned from hell. Clearly, Kara had sensed the way he had tensed up, her hand still on his arm, and at the questioning look she shot him, Oliver snapped back to his more ‘sociable’ personality.

“So, Alex tells me you like to get dressed up in leather and punish people.” Maggie spoke again, a smirk on her lips.

Besides him Kara turned bright red, her mouth hanging open a little in shock at Maggie’s words. Alex was doing her best to suppress a laugh, her lips pressed into a tight line, and Oliver was certain that it was more for Kara’s sake than his own. Oliver himself was a little taken aback by Maggie’s boldness, but impressed by it nonetheless. Almost everyone he met sensed that he wasn’t a man to be trifled with but Maggie, this fiery Latina who was all but a stranger had ignored that and quipped.

Oliver was _definitely_ more impressed than anything else.

Before any of them had a chance to say anything else, Jeremiah called out.

“Kids, margaritas are ready!”

That seemed to snap Kara out of her stupor, and she immediately took off towards the kitchen. Maggie followed suit, throwing Oliver a smug wink as she walked by him. Alex, however, lingered for a moment, the smile fading from her face as she met Oliver's eyes. Without anything needing to be said, Oliver knew what she was thinking. He could see a lot of himself in Alex; the anger at the world for taking someone she cared about, the distrust of people, the inability to admit when she was wrong. Instead of letting Alex stumble over whatever form of apology she was considering, Oliver simply offered her a nod.

“Let’s get a drink.” He spoke, glad that he and Alex already had a degree of silent understanding.

The agent responded with a nod of her own, and she was quickly at her girlfriend’s side. Before heading to join them, Oliver took a pause to take in the family. They looked happy, happier than Oliver had seen either Kara or Alex before, but as his eyes rested on Jeremiah the doubt crept back into his mind. He couldn’t help but resent himself a little for it. If he was right it would be a crushing blow for the Danvers’. If he was wrong…he’d deal with whatever embarrassment occurred if and when it did.

Shrugging the sense of dread aside, Oliver headed over to join the others, plastering on a smile as he accepted the glass of alcohol from Jeremiah. The moment he lifted the glass from the island the door swung open again.

“Sorry, I’m late.” J’onn called out as he walked into the apartment.

“Ohh don’t be silly J’onn.” Eliza beamed as the Martian joined them.

“Oh hey,” Jeremiah placed a hand of J’onn’s shoulder as he spoke. “I forgot to do something earlier.”

Oliver watched in silence as Jeremiah pulled J’onn into a hug. The fear of what his doubts would do to them all if they came to fruition swelling in the back of his mind once again as he observed the happy faces of those around him.

“Thank you,” Jeremiah clapped J’onn on the shoulder as he separated them. “Thank you for saving my life again, thanks for keeping your promise to watch over my girls.”

“It was an honour.” J’onn smiled back at his old friend.

Besides him, Oliver saw Kara raising her glass.

“A toast,” She paused for a second as all eyes turned to her. “To coming home.”

The chorus of that sentiment moved around the room, even Oliver joining in the toast, his glass clinking against the others in the centre of the circle they had formed.

“Now, obviously,” Jeremiah began solemnly. “This is going to be a time of adjustment. But I hope you'll all be patient with me. I've seen and done things that I wish I hadn't.”

“Dad, don’t.” Alex tried to interject, but he continued unperturbed.

“No, sweetie. If I'm going to move forward, I can't ignore my past. Cadmus changed me, they tried to break me, but in the process, they made me dangerous…” Even if Oliver wasn’t wholly convinced of Jeremiah’s motives it was a sentiment he could understand. The resentment the older man seemed to harbour for Cadmus sounded genuine enough, and Oliver more than anyone else could understand a need for vengeance against those who’d wronged him. “I know their weaknesses, and I'm here to work with all of you to make our planet safer. So, if you'll have me, Director, I'd like to return to the DEO. Formally.”

Before Oliver even had a chance to process Kara spoke up. “J'onn? Can he?”

The optimistic tone in her voice almost crushed him, knowing that he was going to have to interject soon. Oliver had been fully prepared to just observe Jeremiah until he had information and grounds to act on, but if the look on J’onn’s face was any indication, the former agent was likely to pose a potentially catastrophic threat.

“Pending a full psych evaluation and a field readiness exam,” J’onn answered. “We'll give you the tour tomorrow.”

J’onn’s acceptance was too much for Oliver. After everything he had encountered, his gut was screaming at him to do something to stop what was happening. Gritting his teeth a little, Oliver leaned down to quietly address the Kryptonian at his side.

“Kara, a word.”

His tone left no room for debate. Kara didn’t react too outwardly at Oliver's demand. She simply threw him a bemused look and silently guided him away from the others. Only when Kara had taken him away from the main body of her apartment and into her bedroom, did he feel comfortable enough to speak. If his mind hadn’t been so preoccupied, Oliver might have taken the opportunity to study the room.

“Is everything okay?” Kara asked, still in something of a hushed voice, given the lack of walls between them and the others.

“Kara listen,” Oliver began gently. “I know that you’re…thrilled that Jeremiah is back…”

“Are you not?” Kara cut over him, a little less concerned about her volume. “Oliver this is why I asked you to come here, to save him.”

“Right but we didn’t _save_ him. He was dangled in front of us by Cadmus like a prize turkey. You wanted my help because Cadmus are smarter than that.” Oliver paused, letting out a heavy sigh before continuing. “And now he’s walking right back into the D.E.O., after living with our enemy for years, with not so much as a debrief?”

“Oliver, I know you’re just trying to look out for me, but you need to back down, right now.”

Before he had a chance to retort Kara pressed on.

“Why? Why is it so hard for you to trust this?” Kara asked, exasperated. “Barry told me you lost your father, what would you do if he walked through that door right now?”

Oliver gritted his teeth even harder, determined to put another arrow in Barry for sharing so much of his personal life with people.

“I wouldn’t trust him, not for a second.” Oliver bit out, a little more anger than he’d aimed for seeping into his voice. “Kara, every time someone from my past who I thought had died came back it wasn’t innocent. Every single time, there was an ulterior motive, or a scheme, or a lie, because miracles like this don’t just happen.”

Oliver could see the frustration growing in Kara before she said a word. It was almost too easy for him to forget, not only how new Kara was to the life they both led, but how different her world was from his own. Compared to Oliver's decade of experience, Kara had been through so few of the toils that came along with the lifestyle, the consequences and the suffering that their actions brought, intentional or not.

“This is _not_ your world, Oliver.” Kara snapped. “Just because so much of what has happened in your world is dark and cruel doesn’t mean it’s like that everywhere. That man in there is the closest thing I’ve had to a father since I lost Krypton, I _need_ you to give him the benefit of the doubt, and if you can’t do that…” She trailed off.

“You asked me to help you because you trusted me,” Oliver spoke, controlling his voice and doing his best to sound calm in one last attempt to present his doubts. “Because you trusted my gut and my instincts. I know better than anyone that family can be a blind spot but right now those instincts are telling me that we _cannot_ trust Jeremiah.”

As he met Kara’s eyes, Oliver knew that it hadn’t worked.

“I need you to leave.” Kara spoke, her voice completely level, her eyes avoiding his.

“Kara…”

“Now, Oliver.”

Taking a deep breath, Oliver nodded silently, taking a few steps back towards the living room. Stopping just before rounding the corner, Oliver turned his head to look at Kara again.

“For your sake, Kara,” He began in a near whisper. “I really do hope I’m wrong.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: So that’s not like…another 6 months I’ve not updated this story or anything. I’d apologise for being hopeless at keeping a schedule, but you guys really should be used to that at this stage. I seem to have got my mojo back though, so who knows, maybe I’ll be able to get some real progress made on this over the next few weeks. I guess you all had better just cross your fingers and hope for the best huh?  
> Also a big thanks to Overpower212 for beta-ing this chapter for me.  
> As always, please, please, please, drop a review, it honestly makes writing so much easier when I know you guys are enjoying this and still want more.


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